Background

The 400-acre North Alcoa site is in a mixed-use area in East St. Louis. Aluminum refinery operations began on-site in 1902. The process involved removing the aluminum content from naturally occurring, aluminum-enriched soils, known as bauxite. The plant operated until the late 1950s; by the mid-1950s, most production facilities had been demolished and the property sold. Site investigations began in 2001 and are ongoing. The site has been separated into two operable units. Operable Unit 1, or OU-1, is approximately 200 acres within the main portion of the site and is the area where bauxite residue processing waste was disposed. ...
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