Photo by Eric Keith / St. Joseph News-Press

Doug Thompson from the Department of Natural Resources runs a ground penetrating radar machine over an area adjacent to the former Rockwool Industries plant in Cameron, Mo., that some people believe may have been used as a dump for hazardous materials.

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CAMERON, MO. — Workers pushed what resembled a lawnmower, but one with an antenna, along the ground. They placed an orange flag in the soil every so often, marking where to drill.

Cameron residents, one with two brain tumors and another who lost his wife to brain tumor complications, looked on.

“We need to find out what’s wrong in Cameron,” said Bill Kemper, whose wife, Karen Kemper, died in May.

The lawn-mower-looking piece of equipment, a ground-penetration radar device, could help solve the brain-tumor puzzle.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Agency are using the equipment this week at the site of a former Cameron insulation plant — Rockwool Industries.

Due to community concerns about what seems like an unusually high number of brain tumors in Cameron and surrounding communities, the DNR and EPA are investigating the site.

Some people claim the company, which leased property from the city of Cameron for several years ending in the early 1980s, buried hazardous materials on the site and also dumped them in a nearby quarry.

The DNR is taking soil and possibly groundwater samples at both the former plant site and the quarry to help determine whether environmental factors could be linked to brain tumors.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and the Missouri Cancer Registry are investigating whether the number of brain tumors in the area are above average.

In 1989, the EPA looked into the quarry and former plant site and found no evidence of hazardous materials.

This week’s DNR and EPA investigation digs deeper than the previous EPA probe.

“This process is by far more extensive. This can find out what lies beneath the surface,” said Chris Whitley, EPA public affairs specialist.

A 1990 EPA document concluded that Rockwool materials dumped in the quarry consisted of cured phenol-formaldehyde resin, a non-hazardous by-product of insulation manufacturing. This previous EPA investigation found no evidence of burying.

State agencies already have tested and cleared Cameron’s drinking water.

The DNR and EPA could release results of this week’s research in about two weeks.

At least 12 Cameron residents have received a brain tumor diagnosis within the past year, local residents say. The state health department is compiling information on brain tumors diagnosed in current and past Cameron and area residents in recent years. The department says it has received more than 20 reports, yet Rep. Jim Guest, R-King City, says he’s personally delivered more than 40 reports to the state.

A majority of the reports are from residents of Cameron — a town of about 9,800 (including the about 3,200 prison population).

Nationally, about one out of every 10,000 people receives a brain tumor diagnosis each year.

Nancy Hull can be reached

at nancyhull@npgco.com.