I stumbled onto this on accident this week. It’s a story about the Hamburg quarry. The Weldon Spring quarry was the one where all the illegal dumping took place and that one was remediated during the superfund cleanup project.
The Hamburg quarry is flooded and has been for as long as I can remember. It almost resembles the shape of a mitten from satellite view which can be found at these coordinates. 38°40'20"N 90°43'25"W
According to the retired teamster haulers interviewed by this website they remembered seeing as many as 2,000 barrels in that quarry before it ceased operations. Link to story is here. https://firstsecretcity.com/tag/weldon-spring/
This is a pretty big deal if true because it’s potentially affecting the well field right next to it that provides water to a good part of the county through PWSD#2. After some preliminary digging around what I’ve been told is that Rep Tricia Byrnes is aware of it and is trying to get something done. I wanted to know if I’m the only one this was news to or not.
Hamburg Quarry Probs
-
anseriformes
- 0-99 Poster
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2024 12:15 am
Re: Hamburg Quarry Probs
Lurker coming out of the woodwork for my special interest.
Hamburg quarry has been bothering me for some time. I'll present everything I've learned so far.
The massive plot of land that is the former ordnance works had, at one point, three quarries. Two of them pre-date the acquisition of the land by the gov't.
These two were used to improperly dispose of waste once acquired in the Production era, and were subsequently assigned an Operable Unit to remove and replace contaminated soils in the Cleanup era. There are now hiking and biking trails near and through these former quarries.
Hamburg quarry is the third, and it is not original to the former town of Hamburg.
Timeline
(referenced using https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer)
Residents were displaced, to put it clinically, around spring 1941 in order to construct the TNT plant. Historical imagery shows that in 1945 there was no quarry present at this location whatsoever. In the next available set of imagery dated 1958, major soil movement and the construction of what may be a parking lot to the immediate Northwest are visible. The entire property would have been under the exclusive control of the government in some fashion during this period of time. The next images in 1968 show the quarry fully excavated and somewhat flooded. Another set of aerials dated 1970 show that the quarry has drained almost completely, and blurry debris may be visible in the bottom of the quarry, between the thumb and the fingers of the "mitten". The deepest point appears to be the wrist, where dark water is still visible and contrasts against the rest of the basin - incidentally this is the corner closest to the river. After these imagery dates, Hamburg quarry filled with water and remained that way, slowly climbing up the ramp at the east edge of the quarry's wrist.
To compare, the ordnance works stopped production of any kind in 1966, and was moved to caretaker status between 1968 and 1985, after which the Department of Energy took ownership and began cleanup operations.
Disappearing Quarry
(sourced from Weldon Spring Site Annual Environmental Monitoring Report(s) Calendar Year(s) 1986-2011
Hamburg quarry is scarcely referenced in any EPA or DoE assessments of the Weldon spring site, despite there being a 5 year comprehensive review, published since 1986, documenting nearly every facet of the entire area; and a less intimidating yearly review covering the same. It is only a footnote, called the 'Post Hamburg Quarry' if even so much as named at all. It does, however, appear repeatedly on Army Corps of Engineers surveys of the area, which are referenced in the above Five-and-one year reviews. The documents themselves make no reference to the figure, but point repeatedly to the Femme Osage Slough and Weldon Spring quarries; Which seem to be the only quarries ever selected for remediation.
On the floor of the Interpretive Center at the containment cell, there is a map of the area. The Hamburg quarry makes no appearance. There are also travel maps available for free. The Hamburg quarry is not referenced in any way on these maps either. Outside of the chemical plant area, more maps are freely available at those little wooden information centers at the trail parking lots. The Hamburg quarry does make an appearance here - as a 'Restricted Area'. But that's it.
One more tidbit from the area - the water in the quarry is unnaturally clear. Based on my own reconstructions of surveys of the original towns of Hamburg, Howell, and Toonerville, checked against the fine work done at http://thetntstory.blogspot.com/2010/12/d-277.html it appears the quarry and its weird parking lot thing were built on a property with a natural spring. (38°40'26.52"N, 90°43'32.54"W) This could explain the gradual filling of the quarry.
The EPA describes a method of testing for contamination known as the Whole Effluent Toxicity test. The test consists of selecting a sample life form that is known to be particularly sensitive to a given contaminant. In the case of Weldon Spring, the organisms selected to study the various water bodies were water fleas, green algae, and minnows. Toxicity is established by testing different concentrations of a suspected contamination source against the organisms and observing survival rates and defects, which themselves are tested against control populations in 'known good' environments. These tests were performed and documented for numerous lakes and springs in the August A. Busch portion of the area, as water from the containment cell flows in that direction and continues on to Dardienne creek. No such assay was performed in the case of Hamburg quarry, however -
There isn't a lot of life to see in the waters of Restricted Area.
In short, it was excavated at a time when it was government owned, in a place known for dumping contaminants into ill-suited quarries, and it isn't really talked about by any of the presently responsible parties. But the folks who built the containment mechanisms and designed the cleanup efforts seem perfectly aware of it.
One last last thing, There's a concrete bridge and culvert on a fork of the lost Valley trail leading to a parking lot and flooded quarry. This one is probably benign, as it seems to have been excavated as a source of fill materials to replace contaminated soil removed elsewhere at the site in the early 2000s. MU Ag Research owns and has historically owned portions of the land there, but their purview was limited to 'what if we grew corn in the woods' and other such thrilling exercises. No major construction or excavation - an element of the institutional controls still enforced today. Even the gas, cable, and phone (sigh) companies with routes along 94 through the area have to make arrangements with the DoE to work on their buried lines. Not that it's going to prevent water from moving stuff around anyways but, you know.
Hamburg quarry has been bothering me for some time. I'll present everything I've learned so far.
The massive plot of land that is the former ordnance works had, at one point, three quarries. Two of them pre-date the acquisition of the land by the gov't.
These two were used to improperly dispose of waste once acquired in the Production era, and were subsequently assigned an Operable Unit to remove and replace contaminated soils in the Cleanup era. There are now hiking and biking trails near and through these former quarries.
Hamburg quarry is the third, and it is not original to the former town of Hamburg.
Timeline
(referenced using https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer)
Residents were displaced, to put it clinically, around spring 1941 in order to construct the TNT plant. Historical imagery shows that in 1945 there was no quarry present at this location whatsoever. In the next available set of imagery dated 1958, major soil movement and the construction of what may be a parking lot to the immediate Northwest are visible. The entire property would have been under the exclusive control of the government in some fashion during this period of time. The next images in 1968 show the quarry fully excavated and somewhat flooded. Another set of aerials dated 1970 show that the quarry has drained almost completely, and blurry debris may be visible in the bottom of the quarry, between the thumb and the fingers of the "mitten". The deepest point appears to be the wrist, where dark water is still visible and contrasts against the rest of the basin - incidentally this is the corner closest to the river. After these imagery dates, Hamburg quarry filled with water and remained that way, slowly climbing up the ramp at the east edge of the quarry's wrist.
To compare, the ordnance works stopped production of any kind in 1966, and was moved to caretaker status between 1968 and 1985, after which the Department of Energy took ownership and began cleanup operations.
Disappearing Quarry
(sourced from Weldon Spring Site Annual Environmental Monitoring Report(s) Calendar Year(s) 1986-2011
Hamburg quarry is scarcely referenced in any EPA or DoE assessments of the Weldon spring site, despite there being a 5 year comprehensive review, published since 1986, documenting nearly every facet of the entire area; and a less intimidating yearly review covering the same. It is only a footnote, called the 'Post Hamburg Quarry' if even so much as named at all. It does, however, appear repeatedly on Army Corps of Engineers surveys of the area, which are referenced in the above Five-and-one year reviews. The documents themselves make no reference to the figure, but point repeatedly to the Femme Osage Slough and Weldon Spring quarries; Which seem to be the only quarries ever selected for remediation.
On the floor of the Interpretive Center at the containment cell, there is a map of the area. The Hamburg quarry makes no appearance. There are also travel maps available for free. The Hamburg quarry is not referenced in any way on these maps either. Outside of the chemical plant area, more maps are freely available at those little wooden information centers at the trail parking lots. The Hamburg quarry does make an appearance here - as a 'Restricted Area'. But that's it.
One more tidbit from the area - the water in the quarry is unnaturally clear. Based on my own reconstructions of surveys of the original towns of Hamburg, Howell, and Toonerville, checked against the fine work done at http://thetntstory.blogspot.com/2010/12/d-277.html it appears the quarry and its weird parking lot thing were built on a property with a natural spring. (38°40'26.52"N, 90°43'32.54"W) This could explain the gradual filling of the quarry.
The EPA describes a method of testing for contamination known as the Whole Effluent Toxicity test. The test consists of selecting a sample life form that is known to be particularly sensitive to a given contaminant. In the case of Weldon Spring, the organisms selected to study the various water bodies were water fleas, green algae, and minnows. Toxicity is established by testing different concentrations of a suspected contamination source against the organisms and observing survival rates and defects, which themselves are tested against control populations in 'known good' environments. These tests were performed and documented for numerous lakes and springs in the August A. Busch portion of the area, as water from the containment cell flows in that direction and continues on to Dardienne creek. No such assay was performed in the case of Hamburg quarry, however -
There isn't a lot of life to see in the waters of Restricted Area.
In short, it was excavated at a time when it was government owned, in a place known for dumping contaminants into ill-suited quarries, and it isn't really talked about by any of the presently responsible parties. But the folks who built the containment mechanisms and designed the cleanup efforts seem perfectly aware of it.
One last last thing, There's a concrete bridge and culvert on a fork of the lost Valley trail leading to a parking lot and flooded quarry. This one is probably benign, as it seems to have been excavated as a source of fill materials to replace contaminated soil removed elsewhere at the site in the early 2000s. MU Ag Research owns and has historically owned portions of the land there, but their purview was limited to 'what if we grew corn in the woods' and other such thrilling exercises. No major construction or excavation - an element of the institutional controls still enforced today. Even the gas, cable, and phone (sigh) companies with routes along 94 through the area have to make arrangements with the DoE to work on their buried lines. Not that it's going to prevent water from moving stuff around anyways but, you know.
Re: Hamburg Quarry Probs
Interesting writeup, anseriformes, and welcome to the forum.
-
Whitepanther
- 400+ Poster
- Posts: 447
- Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 3:32 pm
Re: Hamburg Quarry Probs
EXCELLENT write-up here. Welcome to the forum too btw. I’ll be going over this closer but here’s my gut reaction so far.anseriformes wrote: ↑Sat Jan 06, 2024 11:35 am Lurker coming out of the woodwork for my special interest.
Hamburg quarry has been bothering me for some time. I'll present everything I've learned so far.
One thing that stuck out to me while skimming through this was the mention of multiple quarries. The other former quarry that was flooded was the one that got drained and filled in when they replaced the eastbound section of the Boone Bridge in recent years.
The Hamburg quarry disturbed me because of who it was affiliated with. As you likely knew already the same entity that allowed illegal dumping by the government in Bridgeton was who operated this quarry as well which was Westlake Quarry Co. To be fair though this was once a major outfit who controlled nearly every quarry between here and the Gulf of Mexico. There wasn’t some big conspiracy uncovered where they allowed this elsewhere to my knowledge. But the fact this one was so close to the Bridgeton one and because a lot of the same people were involved it really made me wonder.
You mentioned a spring. In my opinion the spring is something they hit when digging Hamburg’s quarry which is why the rock road that was the haul road at one time is consistently wet. In other words the quarry is continuously purging water that’s possibly contaminated.
From a hypothetical standpoint I’ve wondered if there might be some small amount of fish in the quarry. It’s not uncommon for birds to carry eggs after a spawn and some fish to inhabit a body of water that way. The inquiry to myself on this was whether or not that could help prove if the water is contaminated or not. Unfortunately that wouldn’t provide conclusive evidence. And with nuclear contamination being largely heavy metals I’m told that a water sample won’t be sufficient either. It needs to have sediment samples taken from the bottom. But that’s not to say your theory on the possible sludge isn’t worth looking into.
Re: Hamburg Quarry Probs
+1, welcome. It's a shame that all these observations hold water...
If ya'll ever do catch a fish there, we could char/ash the sample then check it with my Geiger counters. A sediment sample would be better but potentially impossible to obtain from the bottom.
Preservation over plunder.
Re: Hamburg Quarry Probs
Ey! Now that's how a new peep should make an entrance!
Small note on the spring filling it stuff: In karst topography, they don't even need to hit an actual known spring to have the thing fill, there's constant seepage in practically every quarry. I can't tell it's elevation versus the river, but that could be a source of seepage too.
Generally quarry water is very clear and blue, from the calcium carbonate and lack of silt getting moved/stirred up by current.
Small note on the spring filling it stuff: In karst topography, they don't even need to hit an actual known spring to have the thing fill, there's constant seepage in practically every quarry. I can't tell it's elevation versus the river, but that could be a source of seepage too.
Generally quarry water is very clear and blue, from the calcium carbonate and lack of silt getting moved/stirred up by current.
More online investigation than onsite exploration these days.
“My dear fellow, who will let you?”
“That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?”
-Ayn Rand
“My dear fellow, who will let you?”
“That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?”
-Ayn Rand