(WARRENSBURG, Mo.) – The University of Central Missouri’s board of governors recently approved the construction of a new facility that will be used for temporary storage of hazardous materials.
Funding for the design and construction of the facility for an amount not to exceed $600,000 was approved by the board in a special meeting on campus Dec. 13, according to a news release. The facility is scheduled to be completed by Aug. 31, 2015. The new building will be located at the south end of the Agricultural Mechanization Building on the east side of campus.
Deborah Curtis, provost and chief learning officer, said the university began looking at construction of a new facility after the former structure, an engineered 960-square-foot metal building, was removed from the site of the former General Services Building. It was used to temporarily store a variety of waste materials from various parts of campus to be transported to an EPA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act disposal facility.
With the demolition of the GSB, followed by construction of the new student housing-retail facility, The Crossing – South at Holden, the university has been contracting with Tradebe Environmental Services to pick up hazardous materials multiple times per week from various locations around campus.
Curtis said Tradebe has indicated it may close its corporate office in Kansas City. If this happens, UCM can contract with other companies to handle hazardous materials pick up, but these firms will not come to campus as frequently as Tradebe.  In order to meet EPA guidelines, UCM needs to construct a facility that has sufficient space and safety features to hold hazardous materials for at least 30 to 90 days.
“Safety is our number one priority,” Curtis said. “We’ll work closely with our engineering firm, Burns & McDonnell and construction team at McCownGordon to ensure this is a safe, well-constructed facility that meets all codes related to hazardous materials storage. The new building must be something that will maintain compliance with EPA guidelines well into the future.”
The location of the new 1,650-square-foot storage facility was selected after reviewing different sites across campus.
At least $176,000 of the total cost of the new facility will come from money that was budgeted in Phase 1 of The Crossing project to help cover the cost of the hazardous materials structure. University reserves will help cover the remaining cost, according to a news release.