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NPL Site Narrative for Sauget Area 1
SAUGET AREA 1
Sauget, Illinois
Federal Register Notice: June 17, 1996Sauget Area 1 consists of nine sources in the Village of Sauget (formerly the Village of Monsanto), St. Clair County, Illinois. Sources at the site include intermittent portions of Dead Creek, impoundments, and low-lying areas or former gravel pits used for waste disposal. Multiple companies have been identified as potentially responsible for the contamination. The Sauget Area 1 site has been the subject of extensive waste disposal activities since the 1930s.
Prior to the late 1930s, industries located along Dead Creek let their wastes flow into the creek. In the 1930s, residents complained about the disposal of wastes into Dead Creek and were awarded $4,000 by various industries located in the Village of Monsanto. In 1979, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) received complaints about fires and smoldering in Dead Creek. According to documents provided to EPA by the Monsanto Company, Monsanto disposed of wastes in a landfill along Falling Springs Road until 1957. After 1957, the company disposed of wastes in its newly constructed landfill along the Mississippi River. In 1968, the Monsanto Company listed many of the wastes and constituents of wastes disposed at that landfill. Several of these wastes and constituents have been detected at the Sauget Area 1 site.
The Waggoner Trucking Company was cited by IEPA for discharging wash water directly into Dead Creek. When IEPA ordered Waggoner to stop discharging to Dead Creek, Waggoner constructed an impoundment into which it, and, subsequently, the Ruan Trucking Company, continued to dispose wash waters. The impoundment was designed to overflow into Dead Creek. The H.H. Hall Construction Company owned two former sand pits located along Dead Creek. Sampling data and historical aerial photographs suggest that these pits were also used for waste disposal.
Sampling conducted at Sauget Area 1 has revealed organic and inorganic contamination in each of the sources. The substances detected most frequently and at the highest concentrations include various chlorinated solvents, various chlorobenzenes, PCBs, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorophenols, nitroaniline, and metals. Some of these substances have been found in each of the nine sources at the site. None of the sources are adequately contained to prevent surface water runoff from migrating to downstream surface water bodies. A sediment sample collected downstream of the sources indicates that PCBs, cadmium, cobalt, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, and zinc have migrated along Dead Creek to a wetland about 3,000 feet south of the site.
Other sensitive environments, including habitat for state and federally designated endangered species, are downstream of the contaminated wetland in Old Prairie duPont Creek, the Cahokia Chute of the Mississippi River, and the main channel of the Mississippi River. These water bodies, which also are used for recreational and commercial fishing, may be affected by the migration of hazardous substances from the site.
A release to air has been documented based on a drilling accident that occurred at the landfill in 1989. As a result, one worker was hospitalized overnight. Soil samples collected from the accident location revealed volatile organic compounds, semivolatile organic compounds, and PCBs.
About 143,000 people within 4 miles of the Sauget Area 1 site are subject to potential air contamination.
For more information about the hazardous substances identified in this narrative summary, including general information regarding the effects of exposure to these substances on human health, please see the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) ToxFAQs. ATSDR ToxFAQs can be found on the Internet at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaq.html or by telephone at 1-888-42-ATSDR or 1-888-422-8737.