The EPA Region 7 is considering a range of enforcement actions against the Doe Run Resources Corp. after recent tests showed more than one-third of a group of properties situated within a mile of the company's lead smelter in Herculaneum, Mo., contain lead at levels exceeding 400 parts per million, EPA's threshold for removing and replacing such soils.
"While Doe Run has taken some steps in recent years to reduce lead emissions, those efforts clearly fall short of what was necessary," said William Rice, acting regional administrator. "The recontamination we are seeing in Herculaneum is unacceptable. EPA intends to work with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to correct this problem by requiring Doe Run to implement a comprehensive, permanent solution to address this persistent problem."
Doe Run's Herculaneum smelter has been in operation for more than a century and is the largest smelter of its kind in the United States. EPA's enforcement-related involvement with the facility began three decades ago, over concerns with air emissions, children's elevated blood lead levels, elevated lead levels in residential yard soils, and home interior dust in Herculaneum.