News Release 419

DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES ANNOUNCES NEWLY COMPLETED CLEANUP GUIDANCE TO ADDRESS CONTAMINATED PROPERTIES
Guidance announced at Whitmire Micro-Gen Research Laboratories in Valley Park

Volume 34-419

Contact: Renee Bungart

(For immediate release)

573-751-4465

JEFFERSON CITY, OCT. 3, 2006 -- Missouri Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers announced today the availability and use of a newly completed process that gives property owners more flexibility in dealing with possibly contaminated sites while still ensuring environmental integrity and public health.

Speaking at a news conference at Whitmire Micro-Gen Research Laboratories in Valley Park, Childers unveiled the new cleanup guidance, known as Missouri's Risk-Based Corrective Action (MRBCA). Whitmire Micro-Gen Research Laboratories is one of the first companies to use the new process.

MRBCA can be used to better manage possibly contaminated properties such as manufacturing, industrial or commercial sites. In the past, former dry cleaners, drug stores and shoe factories have all occupied sites that could have benefited from this process.

"The new process will give property owners more flexibility and make cleanups potentially cheaper, thus allowing more contaminated sites in Missouri to be cleaned up and become safer for the public health and the environment," Childers said. "The department recognizes the need to provide cost-effective site evaluation and cleanup activities, although cleanup laws do not allow cost consideration to compromise human health, public welfare or the environment."

This guidance is written to provide a more transparent, consistent and predictable regulatory process for those involved in the evaluation and management of contaminated sites. The guidance provides the framework to make decisions related to site evaluation, risk assessment and risk management and a predictable regulatory process for those with property interests.

The new standards will not require property owners to clean up the contaminated groundwater at their sites if the groundwater is not used or could not be used for drinking water. Contamination may be left only if it can be managed safely by tailoring cleanups to site-specific conditions and preventing exposure to human and ecological receptors. The property owner must have appropriate institutional controls, and perhaps engineering controls, to ensure long-term protection.

Larry Sharp, a representative of Whitmire, provided a short site tour and discussed the application of MRBCA to remediation efforts at the site. The use of the MRBCA enabled Whitmire to obtain a Letter of Completion from the department's Brownfields/Voluntary Cleanup Program. The department's cleanup certification declared the site safe for non-residential use and provided documentation required for the sale of the property to another owner.

The department worked with stakeholders in the Risk-Based Remediation Rule Workgroup over several years to produce a draft of the technical guidance.

For more information about the event or the department's MRBCA process, please contact Linda Vogt by telephone at 573-751-6998 or via e-mail at linda.vogt@dnr.mo.gov. For additional information about MRBCA, please go to the department's Web site at /env/hwp/mrbca/mrbca.htm.

For news releases on the Web, visit www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel. For a complete listing of the department's upcoming meetings, hearings and events, visit the department's online calendar at www.dnr.mo.gov/calendar/search.do.

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