The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently removed more than 30 abandoned steel and plastic 55-gallon drums filled with liquid waste – including bulk acids, flammable liquids and ethylene glycol, which is most commonly used in antifreeze – from a property west of Hillsboro.
Kellen Ashford, press officer with the EPA, said the agency was notified about the abandoned drums and on July 25, an on-scene coordinator was deployed to oversee the removal of the drums.
The EPA did not report the property’s exact location.
Ashford said someone who lives near the property noticed an unknown truck entering and leaving the property and notified the owner.
The owner alerted the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which inspected the property and alerted the EPA.
According to a written statement from the EPA, the drums, which had been dumped there, had puncture holes, and nearby soil was stained, “indicating the drums may have been drained on the property.”
The drums were sampled and secured, and the impacted soil and liquid waste was removed from the property, the report from the EPA said.
Ashford said removal operations were completed on July 28.
“At this time, there are no known impacts beyond the incident location,” the report said. “EPA is currently arranging for the safe and secure disposal of the materials recovered during its removal operations.”
Ashford said the on-scene coordinator kept the private property owner informed while crews removed the waste from the property.
“What we found in the drums was a hodgepodge of liquid waste,” Ashford said. “We don’t necessarily know how long those drums had been there. We don’t know if they all appeared all at once, or if it’s something that was going on for quite some time.”
To report suspected environmental violations, contact EPA Region 7 by calling 913-281-0991 or by filling out an online report, echo.epa.gov/report-environmental-violations.
For potential environmental violations that may pose an immediate threat to public health and the environment, call the EPA’s National Response Center at 1-800-424-8802.
