Fredericktown Alarmed About Potential Contamination After Battery Plant Fire
Date Posted: February 25, 2025
Posted In: Environment/Sustainability, News,
From St. Louis Public Radio: Jennifer Torr was at a coffee shop next door to the the Critical Mineral Recovery battery recycling plant when it caught fire in October, sending a tower of smoke into the air.
She had no idea when she and her husband, Darin, bought their blueberry farm a few miles north of town that the facility might one day pose a danger. But when she saw the building erupt in flames, she immediately thought, “We have to get out of this area.”
“I remember my husband and I getting in our vehicle and texting my kids, ‘You guys need to pack some bags,’” Torr said in an interview.
By the time they got back to the farm just over eight miles away, her family members were covering their faces to guard against the smell and fumes from the fire while they packed their car.
Since the fire, Torr and other residents have been organizing to bring their concerns to Madison County and state officials about the battery plant and a cobalt mine on the other side of town. Fredericktown lies at the heart of Missouri’s old Lead Belt. After generations of contamination from lead mining, residents worry now that battery development and recycling poses yet another health hazard.
“Will my grandchildren be sitting here and saying, ‘My grandma tried to stop this 60 years ago and now we’re all sick because nobody would listen?’” Kimi Royer asked her state legislator, Republican Rep. Dale Wright of Farmington, on a visit to Jefferson City earlier this month.
It took days for firefighters to fully extinguish the blaze at Critical Mineral Recovery, which recycled lithium-ion batteries. The facility opened at the edge of Fredericktown in 2023. Now, only its burnt husk remains.
Parts of Fredericktown were evacuated when the facility went up in flames, and families who lived across from the plant were displaced. Lawsuits filed by neighbors of the plant say the explosion caused respiratory problems and post-traumatic stress disorder and raised heavy metals levels in some residents’ blood.
Al Watkins, an attorney for Critical Mineral Recovery, said the company shares residents’ concerns about the effect of the fire on their health and property values.