SUPERFUND SITE: CLEANUP OF MEW PROPERTY COULD GET UNDER WAY IN '99

Cleanup of the Missouri Electric Works Superfund site in Cape Girardeau could begin next year, says an Environmental Protection Agency official.

Bids are scheduled to be opened June 12 on the project to clean up PCB-contaminated soil on the hilly site on South Kingshighway.

Regulatory paperwork, including health and safety plans for the project, must be completed before work can begin, said Pauletta France-Isetts, EPA project manager for the MEW site.

Efforts to clean up the site appear to be moving ahead even though Congress has come under criticism from Vice President Al Gore for not releasing an additional $650 million to step up the cleanup effort of some 170 toxic-waste sites nationwide.

The soil cleanup work at the Cape Girardeau site could be completed in a year. But further work might be needed after a study is done to determine the extent of groundwater contamination, France-Isetts said.

Previous investigations have uncovered some groundwater contamination. "We just don't know how widespread it is," she said.

At this point it isn't known if a cleanup effort is either feasible or warranted in regards to the groundwater. The EPA has estimated it could cost $17 million to clean up the PCB-contaminated soil. But that estimate is several years old and doesn't include any cost for cleaning up groundwater should that be necessary.

A more accurate cost figure for the soil work won't be known until bids are opened.

As part of the project, a groundwater study will be done. The study, which involves installation of monitoring wells, could cost about $2 million, she said.

Wells would be installed to a depth of 300 to 500 feet below ground, France-Isetts said. Sinkholes in the area add to the cost of doing such a study, she said.

The groundwater study likely won't begin until the soil cleanup is completed.

"We want to clean the soils because they are acting as a source of any groundwater contamination," she said.

Missouri Electric Works was a motor and transformer repair and sales business. It closed its doors after the death of owner Richard Giles six years ago.

The EPA first began investigating the polluted site 14 years ago after the Missouri Department of Natural Resources discovered that transformer oil had leaked out of some of the 55-gallon drums that were then stored on the property.

EPA investigations found polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs in concentrations of 21,000 parts per million in the soil.

Legal action delayed cleanup efforts in recent years. A group of 11 businesses and their trade organization, Electrical Apparatus Service Association, fought the cleanup plan in federal court.

But a federal appeals court last December upheld the cleanup agreement worked out between the EPA, Missouri and 175 former customers of Missouri Electric Works.

Eighty percent of the cleanup costs will be borne by so-called potential responsible parties -- cities and businesses that took electrical transformers to MEW for disposal, repair and storage.

The EPA will pay 20 percent of the cost up to $3.5 million.

Nearly 140 potential responsible parties combined have paid about $4 million to $5 million into a trust to help fund the cleanup. Those PRPs have essentially bought out of the problem.

The remaining 42 potential responsible parties are those that were the biggest customers of MEW, such as AmerenUE.

Those parties will pay a large share of the cleanup cost. They also have agreed to manage the cleanup project.

Warren Mueller of AmerenUE in St. Louis is the project coordinator for the PRP's steering committee.

"The PRPs are paying all of the up-front costs," he said. The EPA funding will come later in the form of reimbursements.

"I think we all want to see this site cleaned up as soon as we can get it cleaned up," Mueller said.

Mueller said the steering committee has identified 13 potential contractors who could do the cleanup work. He said he doesn't know how many of those contractors would bid on the project.

Mueller said the soil could be cleaned up through incineration or thermal desorption, which involves heating the soil.

A Houston, Texas, company last year tested a method of heating the soil on the 6.4-acre site. Thermal blankets were used to heat surface soil, and thermal wells were used to heat contaminated soil below the surface. Through that process, organic contaminants such as PCBs were vaporized.

EPA's France-Isetts said, "That work was pretty successful." The soil in the test area was cleaned to a degree even higher than EPA requirements, she said.