Residents near battery recycling facility that exploded worried about environmental impacts, jobs

FREDERICKTOWN, Mo. (First Alert 4) – Residents continue to be concerned about an explosion and fire at the CMR battery recycling facility outside of Fredericktown, Mo. — some are worried about the 70 jobs that the facility brought to the community.

On the evening of Oct. 31, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) provided an update on their monitoring of environmental concerns around the facility. Environmental emergency response personnel remain at the scene and will continue until clean-up operations are underway.

They mentioned two forms of environmental monitoring — air and water.

MDNR says they have requested the EPA take over the lead of air monitoring going forward, and the agency is conducting “roving and stationary air monitoring” around the site. The smoke plume that was seen Wednesday was steady in a north-northeast direction, and MDNR says that the local school is located south of the CMR facility “and was not affected by the smoke.”

If the EPA finds air quality exceeds action levels, the EPA will notify the public, per MDNR’s information.

For water monitoring, the MDNR says the Fredericktown Public Water Supply hasn’t experienced any problems due to the fire, and “the city is not concerned about impacts to public drinking water sources.” MDNR says there was a broken water main in the North Village Area, resulting in a boil water advisory for about 40 residents — but was due to the break and not the fire.

Nobody was injured in the explosion but nearby residents were evacuated.

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