BERGER, Mo. (AP) — Federal and state documents say 13 million pounds of hazardous waste has been illegally stored in a building in an eastern Missouri floodplain for nearly four years.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a federal indictment was filed this year in St. Louis against companies from Missouri and Ohio, and their officers. It alleges that nine million pounds of the waste was first dumped in Mississippi before being dug up and illegally transported to Missouri.

A lawyer for Penny Duncan, the owner of the Missouri company, Missouri Green Materials, said Duncan was unaware the material was hazardous. A lawyer for the Ohio company, U.S. Technology Corp. of Canton, declined to comment to the Post-Dispatch.

At issue is heavy metal-containing waste created when paint is removed from equipment on military bases.