EPA to Host Open House for Wildwood, Final Strecker Forest Development Report

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials have been busy in and lately.

On Tuesday, in what was , and what is now near Eureka. This move comes about 15 years after the area was remediated and due to what EPA experts consider new science and technology to apply. An EPA spokesperson told Patch they seek to apply new lessons learned here and best practices for dioxin containment for other sites in the United States.

EPA officials also will hold an open house for Wildwood residents on June 21 at 7 p.m. at the Daniel Boone Branch of the St. Louis County Public Library, 300 Clarkson Rd., in Ellisville. Benjamin Washburn, public affairs specialist for EPA Region 7, said the final report of the Expanded Site Review for the proposed Strecker Forest Development in Wildwood will be presented.

For the past four years, local home-builder over 18 acres of environmentally recovered land in Wildwood that Byrne had purchased to create the Strecker Forest Development.

The proposed development for 23 custom homes is located approximately 500 feet from the . Byrne bought the land after EPA officials declared it again safe for human living, and in conjunction with the approval of Wildwood's planning and zoning commissioner and city council members at the time.

Wildwood representatives and surrounding residents subsequently had concerns about the safety of the tract, and city leaders since have been involved with various environmental testing of it.

Read previous articles about the matter:

For additional information about EPA's efforts at Route 66 State Park, read this week's Patch articles: