Background/ History
Browning-Ferris Industries Waste Systems of North America, Inc. (BFINA) operated the BFI Missouri City Landfill, about 70 acres, located at 8501 Stillhouse Road, approximately one mile north of Missouri City in Clay County. The largest waste management portion of the site was owned by Lincoln Brothers Land, Inc. and had been used as a municipal landfill since 1972, when BFINA leased the property. BFINA built additional facilities at the site and added hazardous waste streams in 1974. The waste management units at the site included a sanitary landfill, a Chemical Processing Center, two fixation units, two gelation basins, seven bulk sludge disposal trenches, a chemical landfill, a wastewater treatment pond, a storm water retention pond, and sludge drying beds. The Chemical Processing Center included three clay lined surface impoundments, four concrete tanks, two vertical carbon steel tanks, three horizontal carbon steel tanks, and one vertical carbon steel silo.
The sanitary landfill was used by BFINA to dispose of industrial wastes and municipal refuse. From 1974 to 1979, bulk liquid industrial wastes were placed in both the sanitary and chemical landfills. The Chemical Landfill received a variety of wastes, including a large volume of phenoxyacetic acid herbicide wastes, organophosphate pesticide wastes, carbonate-containing wastes, phenol-containing wastes, herbicide wastes, carbyne herbicide wastes, paint sludges, chrome wastes, and various other organic and inorganic sludges. The sludge drying beds received biotreater wastes from Phillips Petroleum. The sludge trenches received industrial wastes, such as paint sludges, paint solids, vacuum and filter press sludges, and drying bed sludges. The impoundments were used for temporary storage of American Petroleum Institute separator sludge, biotreater waste, wastewater treatment sludge, printing ink waste, and metal processing waste. All hazardous waste management units were taken out of service by September 1983. BFINA operated the site under the “interim status” portions of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). In 1994 and 1995, Lincoln Brothers Land Inc. failed to pay the taxes on the portion of the property leased by BFINA. Talon Inc. purchased the property in 1998.
Cleanup Summary
According to applicable state and federal hazardous waste laws and regulations, all hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities are required to investigate and clean up releases of hazardous waste and hazardous constituents to the environment at their facility resulting from present and past hazardous waste handling practices. Initial investigations in the early 1980’s confirmed that groundwater contamination was present on- and off-site. The primary constituents of concern are metals, volatile organic compounds, semi-volatile organic compounds, organochlorine pesticides, organophosphorus pesticides, chlorinated herbicides, dioxin/furan compounds, 1,4-dioxane, cyanide, and sulfide. In 1984, the department placed the landfill on the Registry of Confirmed Abandoned or Uncontrolled Hazardous Waste Disposal Sites in Missouri.
In 1987, BFINA closed all the hazardous waste management units, with waste in place, according to the department-approved closure plan. Each unit was closed separately, followed by placing one multicomponent final cap over the entire facility. The department accepted BFINA’s closure certification and report on Feb. 15, 1988; however, BFINA is subject to the permitting requirements of the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Law and federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments for post-closure care because hazardous waste remained in place after closure.
From 1989 to 2000, BFINA performed post-closure and corrective action activities at the site under an Administrative Order on Consent with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2000, the department and EPA issued two hazardous waste permits, to BFINA and Talon as the owners and BFINA as the operator, and terminated the Corrective Action Order. The department issued the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Facility Part I Permit. EPA issued the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments Part II Permit. The permits require BFINA to conduct post-closure activities and implement the approved final remedy for groundwater contamination, which includes a groundwater remediation system. The department and BFINA executed an Environmental Covenant in the chain-of-title for the affected property, which will notify in perpetuity, any potential purchaser of the environmental conditions of the property. The Environmental Covenant, which was filed in 2008, restricts the property to non-residential land use and prohibits disturbance of the soil and the drilling or use of shallow groundwater for drinking water.
In July 2013, BFINA submitted a Remedial Action Plan application to obtain a permit to treat hazardous remediation waste captured by the Interceptor Trench at the facility using an on-site water treatment unit. For the time being, the collected waste is being pumped to on-site storage tanks and disposed off-site.
