MISSOURI ELECTRIC SUPERFUND CLEANUP FACES FURTHER DELAY

Regulatory paperwork and court proceedings could delay the start of cleanup work at the PCB-contaminated Missouri Electric Works site for another two years.

The paperwork alone could take longer than the actual cleanup of the Superfund site in Cape Girardeau, a lawyer said Tuesday.

"The EPA has to review the plans. There is a paperwork drill that could take awhile," said the lawyer, George M. von Stamwitz of St. Louis.

Von Stamwitz represents 42 of the so-called potential responsible parties involved in the cleanup. The group includes the cities of Jackson and Sikeston, Union Electric and Citizens Electric Corp.

He said getting regulatory approval for the cleanup could take a year even after a contractor is chosen.

Even if all goes well, it could be 1999 before the cleanup work begins.

The contamination problem was discovered 12 years ago. The site has been on the federal Superfund priority list for six years.

Von Stamwitz and members of the PRP group's steering committee attended a public meeting Tuesday called by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Officials with the EPA's regional office in Kansas City and the state of Missouri held the informal, public meeting at the Victorian Inn.

Representatives of a Houston environmental firm also attended the meeting. The company, TerraTherm Environmental Services, will conduct a cleanup test at the site soon in hopes of later securing a contract for the whole project.

The EPA has estimated it could cost $17 million to clean up the site at 824 S. Kingshighway.

Eighty percent of the cleanup cost would be borne by potential responsible parties, cities and business that took electrical transformers to the business for disposal, repair and storage. So far nearly 180 PRPs have signed off on the plan.

The federal government will pay the other 20 percent of the cost.

The group of settling parties has agreed to manage the soil cleanup. Some 140 PRPs essentially have bought out of the problem, paying some $4 million to $5 million into a trust to help fund the cleanup.

TerraTherm officials said the cleanup demonstration project will be done over the next two months.

A thermal blanket will be used to heat an area where the surface soil has been contaminated. Twelve thermal wells extending 8 feet into the ground will be installed in a geometric pattern to heat contaminated soil below the surface.

The whole process is designed to vaporize contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. The vaporized material would be emitted into the atmosphere via an exhaust stack.

Jude Rolfes, TerraTherm president, said cleanup of the entire 6.4-acre site could take four months.

But maneuvering through the courts and red tape could take years.

The EPA can't take bids for the cleanup work until a legal challenge has been addressed in federal court.

A handful of businesses and their trade organization, Electrical Apparatus Service Association, are fighting the cleanup plan.

The businesses fighting the plan haven't signed a consent decree with the EPA and are worried they may be saddled with some of the cleanup costs.

The case is before the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. A decision could come later this year, Stamwitz and EPA officials said.

Depending on the outcome, there could be further court action, officials said.

Local Sierra Club member Alan Journet attended Tuesday's meeting. The Southeast Missouri State University biology professor said he and other local environmentalists want to see the site cleaned up.

Journet blamed the PRPs for not moving more quickly to clean up the site.

But Todd Decker, general manager of Citizens Electric and a member of the PRP steering committee, said the responsible parties want to see the site cleaned up as soon as possible.

"We have already agreed to do it," he said. But Decker said the regulatory process involves going to court every step of the way.

"This thing has a life of its own," said Decker.