Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Wildwood city officials were both applauded and challenged about decision to spend more money on assessing recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report of former Superfund site and proposed home area.
Once Wildwood City Council members voted by majority at Monday's council meeting to spend up to $10,000 with environmental consultants to analyze and reassess the final report provided last week by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials, residents expressed both support and opposition to the continued pursuit to discern whether select property in Wildwood is truly safe after it was a former Superfund site three decades ago. See Monday article as background prior to meeting: Wildwood City Leader Seeks Legal, Technical Clarifications of EPA Report on Proposed Strecker Forest Homes In Monday's council work session, Wildwood City Administrator Dan Dubruiel reiterated that the city needed to "preserve all our legal options." He said …
Friday, June 22, 2012
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency experts provided a final report on Thursday evening for the Strecker Forest Expanded Site Review recently conducted in Wildwood.
Three geographic areas of environmental concern in Wildwood were reviewed by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency experts Thursday evening, as a final report to the project called the Strecker Forest Expanded Site Review. Wildwood residents learned that while this report concludes this part of the overall EPA process, EPA's involvement in the former Superfund area called the Bliss-Ellisville site "is not over." The open house occurred at the Daniel Boone Library Branch in Ellisville. Overview of Project, Per New EPA Fact Sheet: Strecker Forest Homesites The southern portion of the 18-acre parcel where new homesites are proposed is free of contaminants exceeding a level of concern, except for a small, isolated area where elevated dioxin …
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Environmental Protection Agency officials will deliver results of a recent reassessment report, and take questions Thursday evening at a public open house at 7 p.m. See why this report is so critical.
Wildwood city officials and residents alike are holding their breaths to see what Environmental Protection Agency Region 7 team members will tell them Thursday evening about the current risks and overall safety of a certain portion of the city that still remains on the Final National Priorities List (NPL). This is a list on which the environmental group keeps known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants throughout the United States and its territories. The NPL guides EPA experts' decisions regarding which sites warrant further investigation. The Bliss-Ellisville Superfund site, located in what is now Wildwood, went on the NPL in 1983. EPA's present designation of this site is reflected as the "…
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Former Superfund area in Wildwood gets reassessed by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency team. Are contaminants at levels that threaten human health? EPA will host open house Thursday evening. Read the final report.
A proposed home development subdivision on property in Wildwood that used to be one of the worst Superfund sites in U.S. history is declared safe for human use and living for a second time, based on dust, soil, metal and water samples taken and reassessed recently by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 7 team. Highly controversial issues surrounding a proposed custom home subdivision on 18.3 acres in Wildwood will come to a head Thursday evening when EPA officials host an open house to deliver their final findings of the area, as previously reported in Eureka-Wildwood Patch. See related article: EPA to Host Open House for Wildwood, Final Strecker Forest Development Report The lengthy final EPA report for the Strecker Forest …
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Integrity of Environmental Protection Agency rep Bob Feild, the same manager assigned to oversee safety reassessment of Wildwood's Strecker Forest Development near the former worst U.S. Superfund site, has been called into question.
Trust is waivering of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official scheduled to deliver the agency's final report regarding the long-term health safety of Wildwood's former Superfund site area at a public open house June 21. EPA Project Manager Robert "Bob" Feild is the subject of a lawsuit in Omaha, NE, which alleges he covered up information about the causes of lead contamination there, per Union Pacific representatives. See legal documents that accompany this article. Feild is the same project manager with whom Wildwood city representatives have been dealing to determine if land encircling the former Superfund spot in Wildwood is truly safe for human living. Since 2007, Wildwood representatives have been trading information …
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Finally, vacant houses and a few outer buildings associated with a former Superfund area that neighbors considered eye sores to their otherwise beautiful Wildwood subdivisions are coming down. The buildings are off Strecker Road near Manchester Road.
Demolition of the vacant structures located on a Strecker Forest site at 165 and 173 Strecker Road in Wildwood began Monday. These houses and buildings were left standing since local home builder Wesley Byrne and Wildwood officials entered a lawsuit in 2008 about developing the nearby, former Superfund site and remediated land into a new residential subdivision. Neighbors complained the vacant structures detracted from their property values and sent negative perceptions about the area. Concerns about freeing dangerous, potential contaminants prevented city officials from taking action, however. Following advice of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Wildwood's environmental consultant, city council members recently authorized the …
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
After U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's withdrawal of proposed interim Preliminary Remediation Goals for dioxin in soil, Wildwood representatives wonder what it means to settling local issues hovering over areas near the city's former Superfund site.
Question marks punctuated all attending Wildwood's city council meeting Monday after City Administrator Dan Dubruiel announced U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials had removed their interim guidelines for dioxin levels in soil from consideration of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Many Wildwood residents have studied EPA regulations regarding dioxin due to remaining questions about whether potential, residual dioxin contaminants from the city's former Superfund site since migrated through soil, air or water to surrounding neighborhoods. See Tuesday article published in Eureka-Wildwood Patch: EPA Actions Puzzle Wildwood Leaders Wildwood residents, staffers and city council members have been glued for months …
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
What does Environmental Protection Agency's recent withdrawal of dioxin remediation goals mean to Wildwood's anticipation of a final report from the agency regarding the long-term health safety of the city's former Superfund site?
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials took unexpected action that has left local experts at a loss, Wildwood's City Administrator Dan Dubruiel told city council members at Monday's council meeting. Dubruiel said the EPA recently withdrew its preliminary dioxin remediation goals (PRG) from the White House Office of Management and Budget review. Wildwood representatives now wonder if that will affect the EPA's rulings on samples recently taken at Wildwood sites that have caused a chain of controversy since 2007. Wildwood representatives for years have been dealing with EPA officials regarding a former Superfund site located in Wildwood, which was remediated and then purchased by a local resident whose goal was to create a new …
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
(3rd in Patch series) It's not easy to manage a Superfund site, but it's also not a piece of cake to own property near one, either. Here's a look at the recent Wildwood human health risk situation from one landowner's perspective.
When local home-builder Wesley Byrne purchased 18 acres of environmentally recovered land in Wildwood, he said he felt confident about its safety because it had been given a clean bill of health from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency experts. Byrne wanted to build 23 custom homes on the site. He wanted to establish a new subdivision in one of Wildwood's naturally beautiful areas. He wanted to offer nice but medium-priced housing, so more people could afford to enjoy the city's vast amount of trees and wildlife. But reality turned out nothing like the dream of Byrne's family. Eleven years later, the property Byrne was set to build on is part of another, yet continuing, environmental controversy. The 18-acre tract off Strecker Road, …
Daniel J Topik
11:23 pm on Tuesday, June 26, 2012
It’s ironic that the only council person to vote against the motion to spend up to $10,000 for the environmental consultants to analyze and reassess the final report provided last week by the EPA is Randy Ladd, Ward 2 whose property is close to the proposed Strecker Forest development. At the very least, Mr. Ladd should have recused himself from this vote, from an ethical standpoint since he has … more ›