Agreement reached for missile silos w/ link to EPA information on PCBs

By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

An agreement has been reached between the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that will provide long-term stewardship for 150 Minuteman II missile silos and 15 launch sites in west-central Missouri.

The silos, which were imploded when they were deactivated in the 1990s, are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls. Because of that, the sites will be monitored to make sure the contamination remains at each site. The agencies do not want wells drilled near the silos and they do not want the soil above them disturbed. In most cases, the silos remain fenced.

Records show about 14 of the silos were located in Bates County and six were in Vernon County. The missile sites were part of the nation’s defense program from the 1960s to the 1990s.

The sites were dismantled in the 1990s as part of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II) signed with the former Soviet Union. During the first silo deactivation and implosions, polychlorinated biphenyls were found in waterproof coating of the silo works and underground storage tanks. By allowing contamination to remain at the sites, institutional controls were required in the property deeds as use restrictions and covenants.

The decision to leave the environmental “waste’’ in place was based on the risk analysis performed after extensive sampling and monitoring, said Larry Erickson, federal facilities section chief for the DNR.

Erickson said the silos are covered.

“A concrete cap was placed on them and plastic barriers that warn of the silo below were put over the tops of the caps,’’ he said. “On top of that, they put seven feet of soil.’’

Farming will not be allowed on top of them, he said. But the sites can be used as storage lots for farm equipment and livestock staging areas.

“It’s a good fit for agriculture,” Erickson said. “A majority of sites will now be used for agricultural purposes. The main issues are we don’t want to disturb the cap and we don’t want to impact the land-use controls by drilling a well out there.’’

The agreement means the state and federal government will work cooperatively to continue to monitor the engineering and land-use controls at these sites.

All of the sites have been transferred to private ownership, except for one launch control facility, Oscar I, at Whiteman Air Force Base. This one site, although decommissioned, is being preserved for its historical attributes.

“This is another common-sense solution for an ongoing long-term issue,’’ said Doyle Childers, director of the DNR.

For many years the United States Air Force, with oversight from the state and EPA, took samples of the sites because of known contamination that was left in place.