The Missouri Department of Natural Resources invites the public to review and offer written comments on a draft hazardous waste permit modification for the Doe Run Co.-Buick Resource Recovery Facility until May 11, 2026. The department is holding a public meeting and public hearing about the draft permit. Please follow the link below for more details.
The Doe Run Co.-Buick Resource Recovery Facility is located at 18594 Highway KK in Boss, Missouri. Curia is operating and performing long-term monitoring and maintenance activities at the site under a department-issued Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Facility Part 1 Permit, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-issued Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments Part 2 Permit and an Administrative Order on Consent. Currently Buick operates a secondary lead smelting facility at the site. Buick recycles lead-acid batteries and other lead-bearing hazardous and non-hazardous wastes to recover the lead, trace metals, sulfuric acid and polyethylene plastic. The sulfuric acid is recycled and plastics are collected for shipment off-site for recycling. The recoverable lead-bearing material is smelted in one of three furnaces and resold as secondary lead. Doe Run stores and treats spent lead-acid batteries and other lead-bearing materials, which are classified as characteristic hazardous waste and listed hazardous waste. Under the permits, Buick is allowed to store hazardous wastes in containers and containment buildings, treat hazardous waste in miscellaneous units and dispose of treated hazardous waste in an on-site landfill.
On Oct. 21, 2014, Doe run submitted a permit application to the department, t o renew and update its existing Part 1 and Part 2 Permits, which expired March 15, 2015. The permits were continued in effect, as allowed by Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations (40 C.F.R.) § 270.51, until the department issues or denies a new hazardous waste permit. Doe Run replaced that application with a new application, received by the department on Sept. 18, 2020, and again on July 11, 2025.
After a thorough technical review of the permit application, the department prepared a draft Part 1 Permit for the Buick facility. The draft permit proposes to allow Doe Run to continue storing hazardous waste in container storage areas and containment buildings, treating hazardous waste in miscellaneous treatment units and disposing of treated hazardous waste in the onsite landfill. This permit also requires implementing a facility-wide corrective action program to address known releases to the environment. EPA decided not to prepare a Part 2 Permit, since EPA has no site-specific conditions for the facility, beyond those contained in the draft Part 1 Permit, and Missouri is fully authorized for all permitting, post-closure and corrective action activities at the facility. According to 40 C.F.R. § 270.51(d), the continued Part 2 Permit will remain in effect until the department issues a new permit.
The pubic can review an electronic copy of the draft permit and fact sheet below. Paper copies of the permit application, draft permit and supporting documents are available at the Ozark Regional Library-Viburnum Branch, 1 Missouri Ave., Viburnum, Missouri, during their normal business hours, or the department's Elm Street Conference Center in Jefferson City, Missouri. An Open Records/ Sunshine Law Request will need to be submitted to review or obtain copies of the department's files.
Comments on the draft permit are more effective if they point out legal or technical issues or provide information that is not in the record. Please send written comments to Jillian Hunt, at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Waste Management Program, P.O. Box 176, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0176, or by email to jillian.hunt@dnr.mo.gov. The department will review and respond to all written comments and questions received during the public comment period and any given at the public hearing, before a final decision is made. Written comments and oral public hearing testimony are treated with equal consideration.