EPA Superfund Sites
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, “Superfund” is the name given to the environmental program established to address abandoned hazardous waste sites. Created in the wake of the 1970’s discovery of toxic waste dumps at Love Canal and Times Beach, it provides funding for the EPA to assess sites, place them on a National Priorities List, and establish and implement appropriate cleanup plans.
Kolb Grading has worked with the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Natural Resources, the US Army Corps of Engineers, and the Fish, Game and Wildlife Service on multiple projects including Superfund sites Times Beach and Weldon Spring, Missouri. Both projects required experienced hands to provide clearing, chipping and demolition, but also handling and disposal of hazardous and contaminated material, parking lot and haul road construction, decontamination of equipment and personnel, and non-public bridge tunnel construction and installation.
State of Missouri Upper Cedar Creek Reclamation
Upper Cedar Creek, Boone County, Missouri, lies within the borders of the Mark Twain National Forest and is a significant aquatic resource in Central Missouri. It drains approximately 2,000 acres of abandoned coal mines and in 1979 the U.S. Forest Service declared 14 miles of Cedar Creek “lifeless.” Between 1985 and 1990 the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Land Reclamation Program completed several projects to rehabilitate over 700 acres of land. However, flooding in 1990 and 1993 severely damaged streambanks in the Upper Cedar Creek watershed.
In 1997 additional work was approved by the Land Reclamation Program to construct passive treatment wetlands, repair streambanks and seed barren soil with warm season native grasses. Construction to build streambank improvements and wetlands began in 2000 and were completed in 2002.
Kolb Grading was chosen as the general contractor to lead this second phase of remediation in the Upper Cedar Creek watershed. One of the challenges was to neutralize acid that had leaked from an abandoned mine into the streambed. Elements of the project were:
- Survey and layout
- Site clearing and preparation
- Grubbing and streambank stabilization
- 1 million cubic yards of earthwork
- Neutralizing of impoundments
- Hydrated lime installation
- Erosion control installation and maintenance
- Seeding, mulching and fertilizing 400 acres