KDHE tells Senate Commerce Committee HB 2340 would undercut pesticide cleanup at Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant

Kansas Department of Health and Environment Deputy Secretary Leo Henning told the Senate Commerce Committee on the bill that he opposes House Bill 2340 because it would exempt pesticide contamination at the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant from state cleanup controls and remove property-level institutional controls that warn future buyers.

Henning, KDHE’s deputy secretary and director of environment, testified that Sunflower Redevelopment LLC (SRL) assumed ownership and cleanup responsibility for the site in a 2005 agreement and that SRL received land plus funds to perform cleanup. He said SRL obtained $24 million from an insurance claim in February 2018 intended to cover cleanup of asbestos, lead-based paint and pesticides and that SRL committed in a September 3, 2019, letter to use insurance proceeds "to demolish buildings, remediate applied pesticides where the land is used for residential development, abate asbestos on buildings, and remove lead based paint around those buildings to the extent necessary to protect human health." Henning told the…