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Lead Cleanup Begins at Former Indiana Battery Plant
Crews will remove contaminated soil from an industrial property and two residential properties in Muncie.
The EPA has started removing lead-contaminated soil from a former battery manufacturing property and two residential properties in Muncie, Indiana.
The cleanup is expected to conclude by spring. Crews will fence the former Stout Storage Battery property, excavate contaminated soil and transport it to an approved disposal facility. They will replace the soil and restore vegetation.
The agency will monitor air throughout the work to ensure that dust does not leave the site.
Stout manufactured vehicle batteries at the property. Its operations discharged battery rinse water into unlined holding areas without authorization, introducing lead into the soil.
The Indiana Brownfields Program identified contamination through sampling and referred the property to the EPA. Federal investigators subsequently tested the industrial site and nine surrounding residential properties, finding contaminated soil at the former plant and two homes.
