Celebrating 10 Years of Returning
Superfund Sites to Beneficial Use
              ŠERA
      REGION 7
    Success Story

Oronoeo-Duenwei
    Mining Belt:
  Jonlin. Missouri
                          Subsidence pits and chat piles formerly covered the site.
                          Source: Missouri Department of Natural Resources
The new Route 249 bypass is driving economic redevelopment.
Source: Missouri Department of Transportation
Through the  efforts of EPA, the State of Missouri, and the local
community, the  Oronogo-Duenweg Mining Belt Superfund  site in
Joplin, Missouri, is the new home of a scrap metal recycling facility,
numerous residential sub-divisions, and a new highway bypass that is
attracting further  development.    The Superfund  Redevelopment
Initiative (SRI) awarded the site a Pilot Grant in 2001, which Jasper
County used to prepare the site for reuse.

The 240-square-mile Oronogo-Duenweg Mining Belt site was added to
the Superfund National Priorities List in August 1990.  Former mining
activities at the site dated from the 1850s to 1970s and resulted in the
contamination of ground water, surface water, and soil with lead, zinc,
and cadmium. The site remedy  included excavation  of contaminated
soils and extension of municipal water lines to affected properties.  By
2000,  EPA had remediated 2,339 residential  properties including
agricultural lands in the surrounding Joplin communities.

Since 1995, a scrap metal recycling facility has operated on 40 acres of
the  site, providing permanent jobs to the local community.   The
development  plan for Route 249, a new highway bypass that crosses
four  miles of  the  site, was  designed as  a  protocol  for  proper
development of areas contaminated with mining wastes, and to help the
community find economically feasible ways to develop the land along
the  new interstate  highway.  As part of the SRI Pilot grant, mine
tailings excavated from the site were used as subsurface fill material for
the construction of the Route 249 bypass. This new highway opened to
traffic on October  6, 2008 and has begun to spur  commercial and
residential development in the area.
 "The value of the property around the
 highway will go up, and we again will
 be a thriving community like it used to
 be. We want our town to grow and
 prosper. We used to be on top of a lead
 mine. Now, it's a gold mine." -Dale
 Davenport, Mayor, Carterville,
 Missouri

 "That area will be great for
 manufacturing. You can ship product
 from there to anywhere in the United
 States. It's near the center of the
 country and two major arteries,
 Highway 71 and Interstate 44. There's
 lots of land and lots of people to
 work.. .We're in great shape to bring
 somebody in here who is involved in
 manufacturing or distribution." -John
 Biggs, Mayor, Webb City, Missouri
 For more information, please contact
 Melissa Friedland, Superfund
 Program Manager for
 Redevelopment, at
 friedland.melissa@epa.gov or
 (703) 603-8864 or Frank Avvisato,
 Superfund Redvelopment Officer, at
 avvisato.frank^epa.gov or (703) 603-
Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation
Superfund Redevelopment Initiative
                    October 2009

-------