Praxair Rejects Site Near Airport
By Jake Wagman, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Dec. 22–After a raging fire destroyed the Praxair Inc. plant on Chouteau Avenue in June, St. Louis officials pledged to help the firm find a new location.
On Wednesday, the company said thanks, but no thanks. It said the site proposed is contaminated by remnants of the Manhattan Project.
“Praxair is not interested in building a new facility on a floodplain within a Superfund site where, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has indicated, there may be risks of radiological exposure,” Praxair Distribution President Wayne Yakich said in a statement.
This latest exchange marks the escalation of a tense relationship between City Hall and Praxair since June 24 — the day a series of explosions at the plant sent metal canisters of gas into the Lafayette Square neighborhood, damaging homes and terrifying residents.
The fire roared for hours, closing the highway and delaying the start of a Cardinals game. The image was carried live on several national and local news channels.
Now, city official say they doubt that Praxair intends to move at all, accusing the company of exaggerating the risk at the proposed site. For instance, while the area is part of a federal cleanup effort, it is not a Superfund site — land specially targeted for hazardous-waste cleanup by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“What we are concerned about is that this whole idea of them being open to moving was a sham,” said Jeff Rainford, chief of staff to Mayor Francis Slay.
Slay has maintained that Praxair does not belong near a residential area. The Connecticut-based company distributes acetylene and other industrial gases.
In a letter dated Dec. 6, the city contacted Praxair about moving its local operations to a site near Lambert Field. The city owns the land, but it is in Hazelwood just north of the airport.
The Corps of Engineers confirmed Wednesday that the area is part of a cluster of sites near where radioactive waste was dumped in the 1940s while the United States was pursuing the creation of an atomic bomb. The government contracted with St. Louis-based Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. to process uranium ore for the bomb.
But corps project manager Jacqueline Mattingly said that only a small portion of the site, a drainage ditch for runoff from Coldwater Creek, is contaminated. The rest of the 77 acres, Mattingly said, has been cleared for use.
When told about the corps’ assessment, Praxair spokesman Nigel Muir stood by the company’s earlier statement. He said the site poses a risk to employees and could take years of work to make it suitable for business. Muir said Praxair continues to work toward repairing its Chouteau Avenue location.
Earlier this year, the city’s building commissioner, with Slay’s support, rejected the company’s application for a permit to rebuild the plant. The company appealed the rejection to the city’s Board of Building Appeals, which has heard the matter but has not reached a decision.
With Praxair, Slay finds himself in an unusual position — ushering a business outside the city limit. Typically, Slay is among the first to woo companies to the city, declaring most any new business as evidence of the city’s comeback.
But Slay is hearing from Lafayette Square residents, who have vehemently opposed Praxair’s attempts to resume operations there. Opposition has organized into the Praxair Neighborhood Task Force, which has set up a Web site, passed out lawn signs and packed public hearings.
The explosions left an indelible mark on the psyche of neighborhood, says task force head April Breeden.
“It seemed like an earthquake. Or like a bomb had been dropped,” Breeden recalled.
She added that the task force is considering its own legal options to keep Praxair out of business.
Breeden said, “This is not something the neighborhood is going to back down on.”
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