By the end of the summer, the long-awaited $40 million environmental cleanup of the former Carter Carburetor building in North St. Louis will be underway, officials announced Monday at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis, 2901 North Grand Ave., which is adjacent to the building.
For more than 25 years, the Carter Carburetor building has sat dormant. Drug transactions and copper theft have “ruled the day,” said Flint Fowler, president of the Boys & Girls Clubs.
“This building has been active in another way,” Flint said. “It has drained this community of hope, and it signals to this community that, ‘You don’t matter.’ It has systematically damaged the psyche of our young people.”
EPA Region 7 announced Monday that it has reached settlement agreements with two corporations, ACF Industries, Inc. and Carter Building Incorporated (CBI), to pay for an estimated $30 to $40 million in cleanup costs, as mandated by the federal Superfund law.
The 10-acre complex is a former gasoline and diesel carburetor manufacturing plant that operated from 1915 until 1984. The EPA found unacceptable levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), trichloroethylene (TCE) and asbestos at the site.
“What happened here is really just a symptom of a much larger problem that we see all over this country,” said U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay. “Far too often, older urban neighborhoods with mostly minority populations are turned into toxic dumping grounds. That environmental racism is shameful, and it has been going on for decades.”
After years of negotiation, EPA Region 7 finally inked legal agreements with the two entities in mid-July. CBI once owned the main manufacturing building and currently owns the Wilco Building at the site. ACF’s subsidiaries, Carter Carburetor Corporation and Carter Automotive Products, manufactured carburetors for gasoline- and diesel-powered engines at that location.
Many community members have questioned why the did EPA not step in sooner.
“I recognize that for someone who travels up and down Grand Avenue each day, this has been an eyesore and it’s been an embarrassment,” said Karl Brooks, regional administrator for EPA Region 7. “We share that view at the EPA. This agency needed to put its shoulder down and get something done.”
Political leaders, including Clay, put pressure on the EPA to do its job, Brooks said.
“Without that pressure, it would have taken us longer,” he said.
The federal Superfund Law states that those who cause the pollution are ultimately responsible for cleaning it up, Brooks said.
“Because of the complex ownership and the property that’s 80 years old with multiple operators, it took us awhile to get the procedures in place to make sure the polluters pay,” he said. “And they will.”
Brooks said the community will start to see construction traffic on the site soon after school starts, and it will continue for the next three to four years. The buildings themselves probably won’t come down for about two years, Fowler said.
Contractors must first remove asbestos materials from the four-story CBI Building before it can be demolished and removed. They will also excavate and remove the PCB-contaminated soil from the Die Cast Area portion of the site, as well as treat TCE-contaminated soils at a former above-ground storage tank area.
Brooks said the EPA partners with local colleges and universities to prepare St. Louis residents to work on environmental clean-up projects. He expects the EPA will hire many local companies to complete the work. Fowler said the Boys & Girls Clubs will continue to hold meetings to let the community know about contracting opportunities and to keep them engaged.
Fowler said many people have asked him what these agreements mean to him.
“It means a safer neighborhood for kids, families and area businesses,” Fowler said. “It means a transformation of a community and our collective outlook for a better future. It also means responsibility. We now have an obligation to complete the transformation and make this space an attractive development that elicits pride and promise.”
Copies of the proposed settlements with ACF Industries, Inc., and Carter Building Incorporated are available at: http://www.epa.gov/region7/cleanup/carter_carburetor/index.htm
Through August 18, the public may submit comments about the cleanup process at: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/07/18/2013-17304/proposed-administrative-cost-recovery-settlement-under-the-comprehensive-environmental-response
