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EPA and Doe Run Reach Agreement About Lead Handling and Trucking Practices in Southeast Missouri

Release Date: 02/27/2007
Contact Information: Dianna Whitaker, (913) 551-7598, [email protected]

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Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Kansas City, Kan., Feb. 26, 2007) – The Doe Run Resources Corp. of St. Louis has agreed to implement specific work practices that will reduce the release of lead onto public roads.

The work practices, according to an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will apply to trucks that transport lead ore and concentrate from Doe Run facilities in southeast Missouri.

Exposure of young children to lead can cause irreversible brain and central nervous system damage, causing impaired growth development, lower IQ levels, and behavioral problems.

“The dangers of lead exposure to young children are well-known,” said Regional Administrator John Askew. “This agreement will help protect children who live along roads to the Herculaneum smelter and the port near Cape Girardeau. EPA looks forward to working with Doe Run as the company takes these new steps and others in the future to provide greater protection for Missouri children.”

Doe Run produces lead and other metals from the New Mine Belt or the Viburnum Trend in southeast Missouri. Production began there in the mid-1960s and continues today. The company operates a smelter, mines, mills and concentrators in this area.

Ore from the mines is crushed, milled and processed to form lead and other metal concentrates. Lead concentrate is trucked over public roads to the Herculaneum smelter for processing, or it is trucked to the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority near Cape Girardeau for shipment overseas.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act order requires Doe Run to:
● Install truck wash stations at each of its facilities.
● Clean streets or roads leading from the facilities.
● Ensure that lead-bearing materials are not leaking or spilling from trucks during transportation.
● Use dedicated vehicles for transportation of lead-bearing materials.
● Develop spill response planning.
● Comply with monitoring, sampling and reporting requirements.

EPA will enforce and monitor Doe Run in its efforts to comply with the order.

EPA has scheduled meetings to provide the public with more information about this agreement. The meetings, both at 7 p.m., will be Monday, March 26, at Herculaneum High School, and Tuesday, March 27, at Viburnum City Hall.

EPA will receive public comments on the administrative order from March 1 to March 30. EPA will consider any comments submitted during the public comment period and determine whether it is appropriate for the Agency to sign the order.

An administrative record, which includes the order and other relevant documents, has been compiled and is available for review at EPA’s record center in Kansas City, Kan.; Herculaneum City Hall; and Viburnum City Hall.