Release Date: 07/29/2013
Contact Information: Chris Whitley, 913-551-7394 (office), 816-518-2794 (cell), whitley.christopher@epa.gov

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Lenexa, Kan., July 29, 2013) - EPA Region 7 has reached settlement agreements with two corporations, enabling work to begin before the end of summer 2013 on a long-awaited $30 million environmental cleanup of the Carter Carburetor Superfund Site in North St. Louis, Mo.

News of the separate settlements with ACF Industries, Inc.; and Carter Building Incorporated (CBI), was announced today by EPA officials and U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, Jr., at a community celebration event at the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club, 2901 North Grand Avenue, adjacent to the Superfund site.

“A new day has dawned for North St. Louis,” EPA Regional Administrator Karl Brooks said. “Today marks the beginning of the end for a longtime hazard and community eyesore, and an exciting milestone for EPA, elected officials and community members who have worked together to clean up and revitalize an historic part of this great city.”

The Carter Carburetor Site, a 10-acre complex of buildings and structures covering parts of two city blocks at 2800 to 2840 North Spring Avenue, is a former gasoline and diesel carburetor manufacturing plant that operated from 1915 until 1984. Investigations have found unacceptable levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), trichloroethylene (TCE), and asbestos at the site.

With ultimate goals of protecting human health, eliminating a hazardous neighborhood eyesore, and making the property available for productive reuse, EPA Region 7 engaged in long-term legal negotiations with Carter Building Incorporated (CBI), which previously owned the main manufacturing building and currently owns the Willco Building at the site; and ACF Industries, Inc., whose subsidiaries Carter Carburetor Corporation and Carter Automotive Products manufactured carburetors for gasoline- and diesel-powered engines at the site.

This month, EPA’s negotiations resulted in a pair of legal settlements. An agreement with ACF Industries, Inc., of St. Charles, Mo., will result in the removal of asbestos materials from the four-story CBI Building, the demolition and removal of that same building, excavation and removal of PCB-contaminated soil from the Die Cast Area portion of the site, on-site treatment of TCE-contaminated soils at a former above-ground storage tank area, and follow-up environmental sampling to confirm the effectiveness of the cleanup activities.

The ACF settlement was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice, and on July 18, 2013, a Federal Register notice was published. Through August 18, 2013, the public may submit comments on the costs associated with the cleanup and demolition of the Carter building. Comments can be submitted online.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice approved a separate settlement with Carter Building Incorporated, and a similar Federal Register notice of that agreement is expected to be published soon. The CBI agreement provides for the removal of asbestos materials from the Willco Building, and either the subsequent demolition and removal of the same building or a cleanup of PCBs from the building.

Copies of the proposed settlements with ACF Industries, Inc., and Carter Building Incorporated are available online.

A target date for full completion of the cleanup work at the Carter Carburetor Site cannot be determined immediately, but initial work to clear debris from buildings at the site is expected to begin within the next month. ACF Industries, Inc., and Carter Building Incorporated must submit work plans and designs to EPA for review and approval, which could take four to six months. Other steps of the cleanup, including building preparation, asbestos abatement, building demolition, and soil cleanup or removal, will occur over a period of several months after the work plans and designs are approved.