MEmOPOUTAN EOmON

TUESDAV, MAY 29, 2007 A N I N D E P E N D E N T N E W S P A P E R O W N E D B Y E

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DIGGING INTO OMAHAS TAINTED SOIL PHOB! ,KX

r - i m . J ^ l l N s ^ \ , T l l ^ w i m i 1, i n n \ i n L e a d ^ o n t a m l n a t e d dir t is removed f rom a yard a t 3 1 1 0 Chicago St . Bi l l Weis operates t l i e nnInt«xcavator wh i le , f rom lef t , Jeremy Mar t i n , Joan Brown and Jeff Kuhn d ig by hand. Al l work for Environmental Restorat ion L L C .

EPA expands lead test area EEPA offers information, ad'vice on lead cleanup

Q> Do 1 have to have my j-ard tested?

3^ . No. At least for now, the EPA is not requiring that yards be tested.

Q . WiU the EPA's work cost me anything?

&» The federal govern­ment pays for testing and any subsequent cleanup.

Qt, If my yard tests high for lead, what will the EPA do?

ift.. Soil in yards with the worst contamination is being replaced and tiie lawn re-sodded. The EPA is studying how to handle moderately con­taminated yards.

^ « . What can I do to protect my children?

& , Cover exposed soil with grass or mulch, if possible; avoid tracking dirt indoors; wash your children's hands and toys frequently; feed your child a diet high in calcium and iron.

Q . If my soil is not contam­inated, do I need to worry?

jSi. Lead i.s commonly found in brass keys, some im­ported candies and elsewhere. It's often in paint on homes built in the 19S0s or earlier. This paint is the primary cause of leadpoisoninf; nationally.

8 Contamination from a refineiy .spread farther than oiiginally believed.

BY NANCY GAAHDER

WORLD-HBRALD

STAFF-WRrrSR.

Air pollution from the for­mer Asarco lead refmery .set­tled over a wider area of Omaha than originally sus­pected, federal officials say.

As a result, the Environ­mental Protection Agency has been testing soil farther north, west and south than the initial test area defined by the agency in 2001.

Bob Feild, project coordi­nator for the EPA, said the lest area was expanded be­cause earlier soil samples from that area matched the lead to the type emitted by the former Asarco plant.

The EPA has always said it would test f ai'ther afield, and city and county officials say they had a general under­standing that the agency was testing in a wider area. A map provided this month was the first to show the areas .so pre­cisely.

"To assess what you have in Omaha, you really need to keep looking," said Reid Steinki'aus, supervisor of childhood lead poisoning pre­vention for the Douglas County Health Department. "Drawing hard and fast boundaries, that is not how pollutants emanate."

The Oinaha cleanup is the

largest in EPA history in terms of the number of resi­dential yards wirh lead-con-taminaled soil. The EPA is re­placing soil becau.se of concerns that children amid develop lead poisoning.

Children in the expanded test area already were piiten-tially at risk because of the possible p resence of lead-based paint du.st in thoir homes. With lead possibly in their yards, the exposure risk increases, health offi­cials say.

The iiewtestboundaritts: • Instead of the original

boundary of Ames Avenue on the north, testing now ex­tends as far north as Redick Avenue.

• Instead uf L Street on the south, testing goes all the way to the Douglas-Sarpy County line at HarrLson Street.

• In.stead of 4.Sth Street on the west, neighborhoods from Hamilton to Leaven­worth Streets are being tested as far west as .S2nd Street.

Business districts, includ­ing downtown, are excluded from the testijig.

Feild said these bounda­ries, like the earlier ones, will change. Final boundaries will be defined sometime in the next 18 months. When that is

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Children t e s ted for lead in Douglas Ck>unt3r Percent tested in 2006: 0( children in Of children in Douglas Countv Superfund area

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Percent testing high for lead: Countywide ^

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T e s t i n g : EPA says area could be broadened again Continuedfrom Page 1 done, all yards within those boundaries will be tested, he said.

Most yards in the expanded area have beentested, Feild said. About 3,000 Omaha property owners who have never been con­tacted by the EPA will receive letters this year requesting ac­cess to their yards. Most of those property owners are in the new areas.

So far, about 38 percent of Oinaha yards tested are above the EPA's standard threshold of concern, Feild said. About half those—the most highly contami­nated —are having soil replaced. The agency is studying what to do about the remainder.

Asarco operated a lead refin­ery for more thjm 100 years along the Missouri River in downtown Omaha. Over the

years, dust from its smokestacks settled over Omaha yards.

The number of children test­ing high for lead in their blood continues to drop, according to 2006 statistics from the Douglas County Health Department.

Fewer than half as many chil­dren tested high in 2006 as in 1997, the year that doctors had to begin reporting all test results. Those numbers provide a glimpse of the problem but not the full picture, because not all children are tested.

Reasons for the decline in­clude:

• The Asarco refinery has closed, so lead from its smoke­stacks is no longer settling over Omaha neighborhoods.

• Public education efforts are prompting parents to better pro­tect their children from lead.

• The soil cleanup is remov-ingaroute of exposure.

• The lead-based paint hazard in older homes is gradually di­minishing as some of the homes are replaced or repiiired.

Steinkraus said it is important for parents to remember that their children face lead risks from multiple sources.

Thousands of older homes in Omaha contain lead-based paint, a major source of childhood lead poisoning. Some toys and im­ported candies, among other consumer products, also have lead in them, he saiid.

Lead poisoning can lessen in­telligence and has been linked to juvenile delinquency.

P a r k s not leSt out of lead tes t ing

Officials say they are working to make sure that Omaha parks do not pose a lead risk to children.

The Environmental Protection

Agency is developing a plan for sampling soil in large parks. Smaller parks already have been tested, said Bob Feild, EPA proj­ect manager for the Omaha cleanup.

City of Omaha officials have fixed potential problems with lead paint on play equipment at 22 parks, said Reid Steinkraus of the Douglas County Health De­partment.

The City Parks Department has either given the equipment a fresh coat of paint or replaced it, Steinkraus said.

Generally, swings, slides and climbers were the equipment most frequently found to have lead paint.

Steve Scarpello, head of the Parks Department, said painted suirfaces of play equipment are now inspected twice a year to make sure the paint isn't deterio­rating.