Vision of new community at old Sunflower plant suddenly imperiledPerhaps over all these years you’d forgotten about grand plans to rehab the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant on the outskirts of De Soto.
Once a massive cleanup was completed, it was envisioned as a place where 25,000 people would “live, work and play in a unique community” surrounded by 2,000-plus acres of parkland.
The site first had to be cleansed of the toxins and explosives residues that once had the EPA contemplating putting it on its Superfund list.
The soil was heavily contaminated with arsenic, lead and mercury, among other poisons.
Randall attributes the new money problems to a dispute between the Army and the EPA.They have different interpretations of a federal law that exempts the cleanup of pesticides that were properly applied.
“(The) Army believes that they are exempt,” she said, because the Army claims everything was done by the book.
But “the regulators don’t believe that (the) Army can demonstrate proper application.”And while they’re not contaminated with nitroglycerine and such,
they pose a health risk, regulators contend, because they were treated with now-banned pesticides, such as chlordane.
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