Downtown site sets sights on 2029

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District, Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP)
Published March 31, 2023
The St. Louis Downtown Site (SLDS) is located in an industrial area on the eastern edge of St. Louis, just 300 feet west of the Mississippi River. About 11 miles southeast of the St. Louis Lambert International Airport, SLDS is comprised of approximately 210 acres of land, which includes Mallinckrodt Inc. (formerly Mallinckrodt Chemical Works) and 38 surrounding vicinity properties (VPs).

The St. Louis Downtown Site (SLDS) is located in an industrial area on the eastern edge of St. Louis, just 300 feet west of the Mississippi River. About 11 miles southeast of the St. Louis Lambert International Airport, SLDS is comprised of approximately 210 acres of land, which includes Mallinckrodt Inc. (formerly Mallinckrodt Chemical Works) and 38 surrounding vicinity properties (VPs).

The St. Louis Downtown Site (SLDS) is moving toward Remedy Complete by fiscal year 2029, with transfer to the Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management (DOE-LM) scheduled by FY32.

The FUSRAP team was completing restoration after remediation at the Gunther Salt North property in late FY22 and early FY23. However, Gunther Salt-North (DT-4) was then put on hold until spring 2023 because the FUSRAP team is awaiting conveyor-belt supports contamination-removal methodology.

The team began remediation at Mallinckrodt’s Plant 2 North Oct. 17, 2022.

The FUSRAP team has shipped a total of 338,329 cubic yards of contaminated soil (rounded to the nearest cubic yard) from SLDS to a licensed, out-of-state disposal facility -- 336,667 CY total shipped through FY22 and 1,662 CY (also rounded to the nearest cubic yard) in FY23 as of March 16.

FUSRAP used innovative engineering methods to gain access to and excavate soils that were previously considered inaccessible due to location relative to the permanent structure at the Gunther Salt Company Property in downtown St. Louis. This area includes salt domes – specialty structures used to warehouse salt prior to distribution into trucks and onto roads. For remediation of contamination beneath the salt domes’ walls, the FUSRAP team limited excavation to 5-foot sections at a time.