Mine tailings are in the news again.

After local residents contacted environmental activist Erin Brockovich (who did not show at two locally scheduled public meetings), Doe Run Company has received an administrative order on July 31 from Region 7 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to modify a 2006 cleanup agreement with the agency, an agreement which specifically addresses the cleanup at Leadwood.

Doe Run is currently cleaning up six tailings piles/waste sites in St. Francois County. Nearly all of these sites predate the company, which acquired responsibility for the cleanup along with the property. The most recent complaint was that the cleanup was proceeding too slowly, and was being done with improper methods.

Long popular as all-terrain vehicle destinations, the company acknowledges that enforcing trespass laws on the sites is difficult. Included in the order are new directives on proper use of biosolids to remediate the site, biosolids and material hauling, and public trespassing. The timetable for completion of the remediation has also been moved up.

According to an article in the August 1 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Doe Run officials attribute the slowdown in remediation rate to the current weak economy and subsequent work force cuts.