Background/ History
The Lone Star Industries Inc. site, doing business as Buzzi Unicem USA, is located on 2,023 acres at 2524 S. Sprigg St. in Cape Girardeau. The Harrison Interests began operating a cement plant at the site in 1910. By 1923, the facility was purchased by The Marquette Co., who installed a new “wet process” plant at the site in 1957. In April 1981, a “dry process” preheater/precalciner plant replaced the existing wet process plant. In April 1982, Lone Star Industries Inc. acquired The Marquette Co. and they merged into a single corporation, Lone Star Industries Inc., in 1987. Dyckerhoff AG acquired Lone Star in 1999 and Buzzi Unicem, a majority stockholder of Dyckerhoff, took over operation of the company in January 2004.
Lone Star is operating under two hazardous waste permits, one issued by the department and one issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The department issued the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Facility Part I Permit, effective Feb. 16, 1999. EPA issued the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments Part II Permit, effective March 18, 1999. Lone Star operates a dry process rotary cement kiln with a four-stage preheater and a precalciner. The kiln produces clinker, the main ingredient in Portland cement. Lone Star uses mainly coal to heat their kiln system. To supplement its fuel needs, Lone Star also uses non-hazardous waste fuels, such as shredded plastics, sawdust and used oil, and solid and liquid hazardous waste-derived fuels. Most of the hazardous waste comes from off-site hazardous waste generators or third party hazardous waste blenders or brokers. Lone Star receives the hazardous waste in bulk tanker trucks and 55-gallon drums, “blends” the waste with other hazardous waste to meet fuel specifications, and stores the resulting wastes in tanks until they are used as liquid fuel. Lone Star disposes of the cement kiln dust, a byproduct of the cement production process that could contain hazardous constituents, in an on-site landfill.
Cleanup Summary
The Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Law requires permitted hazardous waste facilities that currently or formerly treat, store or dispose of hazardous waste in land-based units such as landfills, surface impoundments, land treatment units and some waste piles, to carry out a groundwater monitoring program to detect and measure releases to the environment from the land-based units. Lone Star currently has a groundwater monitoring program designed to monitor the cement kiln dust landfill.
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. In 1993, a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCRA, Facility Assessment was completed at this site, to identify and gather information on potential or actual releases of hazardous waste and hazardous constituents to the environment. The assessment recommended additional investigation. The subsequent investigations concluded that any areas of concern had been adequately addressed and no further corrective action was necessary.
