HAZELWOOD — E. Dean Jarboe, a chain-smoking businessman, seized on a lot of opportunities in his long life, investing in anything from wine to plastic coatings. The 1977 purchase of a 4-acre industrial space here in the 9200 block of Latty Avenue seems to have left the longest legacy of all, one of hardship and frustration.
The property was contaminated by the mishandling of radioactive waste left over from efforts to develop the nation’s first atomic weapons. Now, nearly half a century after the $150,000 purchase, the storied property is an example of one of many unresolved environmental issues from the historic arms race.
Jarboe ran Futura Coatings, a resin business, and other firms at the location, including one that ended up moving and storing contaminated dirt from the area. He died in 2017 at 92. His two sons, Jeffrey and Rodney, still occupy 9200 Latty Avenue as a business headquarters and to manufacture fake brick and stone panels.
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The brothers are in a fight with the federal government over liability for past and future cleanup of radioactive contamination on the property. At last count, they were potentially on the hook for about $1 million.
“Forty-five years later, this turns out to be the worst investment we’ve ever made because we are going to have to pay more than what we paid for the property by a quantum leap,†Rodney, 68, said Thursday in an interview at his office.
He said federal laws for Superfund sites are too broad and “very unfair†to small businesses.
Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. processed massive amounts of uranium ore for the development of atomic weapons from 1942 to 1957. The work was done in secret on the riverfront, just north of downtown ºüÀêÊÓƵ. Beginning in 1946, tons of byproduct with residual radioactive material were shipped to a location on the northern border of Lambert airport, by Coldwater Creek, to be stored.
By the mid-1960s, Continental Mining and Milling Co. purchased much of the material. The company had it trucked about a mile away, to the 9200 block of . Another company, Cotter Corp., processed residues of radioactive ores there until 1973 and shipped material offsite to Canon City, Colorado. Some of the contaminated material ended up buried at West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton. Some spilled in transit between the airport and Latty Avenue or was washed or blown around by Mother Nature.
The Army Corps of Engineers has overseen two costly since 2000. Jarboe Realty is considered one of the so-called potentially responsible parties of the environmental Superfund site.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division said it wanted Jarboe Realty to pay $1.76 million of the Corps’ cleanup tab, or a 2% share of overall liability, according to records the firm shared with the Post-Dispatch.
In response, the firm has argued that the liability would “strip Jarboe Realty of nearly all its assets, stock, and property, other than the Latty property which is essentially unmarketable.â€
Most of the land within 4 feet of the office perimeter and industrial buildings has been remediated to modern standards. The federal government says contamination still exists in “inaccessible soils†under some of the nearby active roads, railways and buildings. A monitor down the hall from Rodney’s office, and others throughout the plant, tests air quality for radon gas. He said the government also monitors test wells on the property.
In the ongoing settlement negotiations, Jarboe Realty offered to pay $400,000 of the cleanup bill, noting that it still “likely could be a turning point that will bankrupt†affiliated businesses currently on site: Replications Unlimited and Creative Polymers.
“I’d rather pay nothing,†Rodney Jarboe, of Town and Country, told the Post-Dispatch. “We are giving away our retirement fund. My brother and I, we should be in our glory years, winding things down, harvesting our investments, and this is stealing it.â€
On July 18, government officials countered with a revised settlement proposal. They dropped Jarboe Realty’s liability from $1.76 million to $974,000. Eric Albert, an attorney for the government, noted several reasons for doing so in the proposal, but said Jarboe Realty “appears not to recognize any real distinctions†from the other companies on site. He argued that Jarboe Realty “can afford to pay as much as $1.23 million.â€
Making his case, Albert wrote that “we cannot ignore the reality that Jarboe Realty has allowed Jeffrey and Rodney Jarboe to withdraw $870,000 in company funds, which is booked as ‘owner draws,’ since 2017, long after it knew of its significant potential liability to the United States.â€
He added: “(T)he fact remains that Jarboe Realty is liable as a current owner†under federal Superfund law, “and that it has benefited from the Corps’ remedial actions.â€
“Moreover, E. Dean Jarboe purchased the properties knowing that they might still be radiologically contaminated, so Jarboe Realty should not now be surprised that it is being asked to pay for a small portion of the government’s cleanup costs.â€
There are conflicting reports about if E. Dean Jarboe knew the property was contaminated when he bought it in 1977. But it’s clear that safety standards were changing fast and so were the agencies responsible for enforcing them in ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
According to , he had reports from Cotter and federal officials “showing the site had been completely decontaminated to federal standards.†But when skeptical authorities from the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, showed up, Bayless Inc., the seller, told them Jarboe was the new owner. More testing was requested.
Rodney Jarboe said his father told him for years that he didn’t know the land was previously contaminated until shortly after he bought it. He said federal officials quickly stalled their plans to create a successful family business, which helped motivate his father to launch a construction company on site to help speed the cleanup.
“Why pay somebody else to do it when he could do it,†Rodney said. “He got the contract for moving it. He was a shrewd business guy. ... He did not do anything independent of being managed by the NRC.â€
But he said being a potentially responsible party for the cleanup wasn’t triggered by moving dirt, rather for being an existing owner of property in a Superfund site.
“Big government is putting responsibility on small business,†he said.
Asked for comment Friday, an attorney for the Department of Justice referred questions to a spokesman, who said the Environment and Natural Resources Division had no comment about the ongoing settlement negotiations.