The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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November 5, 2009

Missouri: Years later, fear about pollutants prompts retesting

The Associated Press

WILDWOOD, Mo. — In the 1970s, Russell Bliss used his own land in west St. Louis County as a dumping ground for dioxin and other pollutants. Now, three decades later, there is concern that despite millions of dollars spent on cleanup, the pollutants are resurfacing.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday that the city of Wildwood has approved spending $300,000 to retest the site, where a developer now wants to build 23 new homes.

Meanwhile, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources wants to spend $168,000 to retest land around the site and put in eight new wells to monitor ground water. DNR officials are concerned that vapors from pollutants could migrate into basements.

The Environmental Protection Agency paid $6.4 million to clean up the site nearly 20 years ago. But new concerns are worrying nearby residents and have thrown a wrench into plans for the new development.

“There is just a lot of fear,” said Dan Topik, 71, who lives near the site.

In the 1970s, federal authorities discovered that Bliss buried hundreds of drums filled with dioxin and poured industrial waste into open pits and storage tanks on his land in a mostly wealthy part of St. Louis County. By the late 1980s, the EPA put the site on a registry of the worst polluted land in the country, and began the expensive cleanup.

Federal, state and local officials thought that was the end of it. But recently, Wildwood officials have debated whether new testing was necessary.

Don Van Dyke of the DNR has told the city council that a monitoring well on the Bliss site picked up elevated levels of volatile organic compounds, prompting new testing.

Topik, a retiree, and other residents hope the tests will finally dispel claims of contamination. But he worries about what happens if they don’t.

“If I would have known what was happening, I would have never have bought here,” he said.

In 2007, Wildwood gave developer Wesley Byrne permission to build a new subdivision, Strecker Forest, next to Topik’s subdivision — and also next to the land where Bliss once lived. Byrne had visions of building all-brick, $400,000 homes.

But soon after the development received the city council’s approval, a woman who used to live in Topik’s subdivision told the council that both her son and his best friend became seriously ill after playing in the woods and fields. The woman’s son is in remission with leukemia. His friend died of a rare blood disorder.

A doctor said there was no evidence connecting the illnesses to the pollution, but the council put the housing development on hold pending renewed testing. Byrne filed suit over the delay.

The EPA, DNR and some Wildwood officials believe the land is safe, noting that only a small portion of Byrne’s parcel was actually contaminated. Still, last month, the council hired Mundell & Associates of Indiana to perform new tests.

Meanwhile, another concern emerged back on the Bliss property. Van Dyke told the council that a monitoring well showed elevated levels of organic compounds such as benzene in groundwater. That raised concern that it was evidence of material the EPA missed during its cleanup.

So the state will install eight additional wells on the Bliss site to test for vapor intrusion.

DNR doesn’t believe anyone is in danger. Van Dyke told the council that even if homes are at risk, the problem would not be difficult to alleviate. Still, some residents say the new revelations make them uneasy.

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