The Multistate Trust was in Springfield Thursday to update residents on the cleanup of a contaminated site in the northwest part of the city.
The former Tronox/Kerr-McGee Wood Treatment Facility, at 2800 W. High, is contaminated with creosote-related chemicals.
"Kerr-McGee discharged the creosote-laden wastewater into unlined lagoons," said Tasha Lewis, program director with Multistate Trust. "And that creosote, over the many years of operation, leaked into the ground, into the subsurface, and impacted or contaminated the groundwater."
The Kerr-McGee facility opened in 1907 and was decommissioned in 2004. In the late 70s/early 80s, Lewis said, the creosote contamination was found. The Environmental Protection Agency ordered Kerr-McGee to implement cleanup actions at the facility.
Kerr-McGee eventually transferred their environmental liabilities in multiple states to Tronox, and that company filed bankruptcy in 2009. By 2011, the Multistate Environmental Response Trust was established to clean up the Tronox sites. It's been working with Missouri Department of Natural Resources to remediate the Springfield site.
Lewis said they’ve been collecting soil samples from neighbors’ backyards as well as air samples from inside people’s homes, including their basements.
"And we've taken all of that data, and we compare it to health-based standards that are considered protective of human health," said Lewis. "And, to date, what we're seeing for those various different residential properties is that those concentrations are below those protective standards, which is good."
Lewis said they’ve also sampled Fulbright Spring since 2022, and the level of creosote-related chemicals has been below drinking water standards. She said the off-site investigation is expected to wrap up in 2026.
The Golden Hills detention basin, about a half mile northeast of the former wood treatment site, contains elevated concentrations of creosote-related chemicals, according to Lewis. She said, next year, they'll develop a design to remove the impacted soil in the basin and replace it with clean soil. They'll also add constructed treatment wetlands. "Wetlands are a great treatment system for cleaning up the creosote-related contamination," according to Lewis. And they'll continue sampling the public drinking water supply sources.
"And the reason for that is because the basin is impacted," she said. "We want to confirm that creosote-related chemicals from this basin are not getting to the public drinking water raw sources."
The goal is to eventually get to where the site can be re-used, and when that happens, Lewis said they’ll meet with the public to find out what they’d like to see – some people have mentioned a ball field or a community center.
A groundwater treatment system at the site currently costs about $1 million each year to operate, and Lewis said it will need to remain in operation for "a very long time because the goal is to contain or hydraulically prevent the groundwater contamination that's on site from moving off site." She said they’re working on ways to make the treatment system less expensive since it will have to be integrated into future re-use plans.
