FAG Joplin Plant Released from Long-Running Pollution Case

FAG Joplin Plant Released from Long-Running Pollution Case FAG Bearings USA (USA, a division of Schaeffler Holdings, Germany) is wrapping up a long and involved groundwater pollution settlement, with a move by the U.S. Department of the Interior that puts both the state and federal settlements in alignment. In Springfield, Missouri U.S. District Court, the Department of Interior filed a suit against FAG. This was done to combine both the state and federal settlements into one, and will be the final action taken against FAG. In a statement, FAG spokeswoman Karen Bozman said: "We are pleased that the federal claims portion of this situation, which is part of the global settlement regarding this matter, is concluding on similar terms as our agreement with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. As the consent decree notes, this will enable us to expedite restorative actions." The complaint against FAG bearings and its Joplin, Missouri plant dates to 1991 when private water wells in the Silver Creek Village area were found to be contaminated by trichloroethylene (TCE). Later that year, well water samples from two miles away in Saginaw were also found contaminated by TCE. FAG's Joplin bearing plant was implicated because the facility used TCE as a degreaser from 1972 to 1982, and because the contaminated wells were located immediately south of the FAG property line. FAG unsuccessfully tried to include a Gulf States / International Paper plant in the complaint, but GS / IP did not use TCE and was exonerated in 1998. FAG used TCE in the process of manufacturing steel balls for ball bearings. In its investigation, the EPA alleged FAG workers not only improperly dumped TCE, but also that the allegedly "closed system" actually spilled more than 40 tons of TCE: of the 551 55-gallon drums of TCE were delivered between 1972 and 1982, only two drums of TCE were sent by FAG for hazardous waste disposal. When it stopped producing balls in 1982, use of TCE at the plant also stopped. As a contaminant, TCE is relatively easy to deal with. For example, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) report listed above indicates TCE evaporates extremely quickly out of water, making well water relatively safe for most outdoor uses, that plants and vegetables watered with TCE-laced water do not build up accumulations of TCE, and that the human body will normally flush all traces of TCE within a week after exposure ends. Its instability is what makes it useful as a solvent. However, the primary environmental and potentially carcinogenic problem with TCE is that it "sticks" to contaminants in water and the soil, and tends not to evaporate from those contaminants. With this final settlement, most of the sensor-equipped monitoring wells will be shut down, and several wells on residential property will be sealed in an attempt to cut off known TCE migration paths into the aquifer. Some monitoring will continue until Missouri determines the TCE contamination has stopped.