OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The largest residential lead contamination cleanup in the nation should be completed by the end of 2015 if the work in Omaha continues at the current pace, Environmental Protection Agency officials said Tuesday.
The EPA said Tuesday that it is proposing listing 1,154 of the 11,425 properties in Omaha’s superfund site as completely cleaned up.
Regional EPA Administrator Karl Brooks said the delisting announcement may seem bureaucratic, but it signals something important about the cleanup work that began after Omaha asked for help in 1998.
“This is a sign that we are beginning to see an end to our work here in Omaha,” Brooks said.
Most of eastern Omaha has been considered a superfund site by the EPA because of the extent of lead contamination, which can endanger children’s health, causing decreased intelligence, slow growth and behavior problems.
The soil in more than 10,000 Omaha yards has been replaced to clean up lean contamination that the EPA says came from a lead smelter that Asarco operated in Omaha for more than a century before it closed in 1997.
The EPA also stabilized the paint on more than 5,000 homes and set up educational programs on lead dangers. Officials acknowledge that lead paint flaking off of buildings likely contributed to the problem.
Roughly $279.5 million has been spent to date on the lead cleanup in Omaha. EPA officials said the cleanup is showing results.
Less than 2 percent of the eastern Omaha children tested today have elevated lead levels. Before the cleanup, nearly 33 percent had elevated lead levels.
Mayor Jim Suttle said Tuesday’s announcement is a significant milestone in the cleanup process.
The EPA has tested the lead levels on nearly 42,000 Omaha properties as part of its cleanup work, but it still wants to test samples of the soil on about 2,300 more properties. So far the agency has had difficulty getting permission to test the remaining properties, but it hopes to gain authorization soon.
As Omaha properties are removed from the superfund list, there will be a boost to the economy because the land can be developed more easily, said EPA assistant administrator Mathy Stanislaus.
“We’re going to see continued benefit from this cleanup and investment,” he said.
Settlements with companies the EPA said were responsible for the lead contamination have paid for most of the cost of the cleanup in Omaha.
Asarco paid $200 million as part of a settlement with the EPA because of the lead smelter it operated, but Asarco did not admit fault in the settlement.
Union Pacific, which leased some land to Asarco for a few years, paid $25 million as part of an agreement that also didn’t admit any fault. UP believes lead paint is the main source of Omaha’s lead problems, so the railroad made sure that more than half of its settlement would go to help reduce lead paint problems and improve children’s health.
The Aaron Ferer & Sons Co. metal refinery also agreed to pay $500,000 in a settlement to help cover cleanup costs without admitting fault. The company ran a lead refining operation from 1954 to 1963 that used a blast furnace to remove impurities from the lead, which spewed lead particles into the air that settled downwind onto residential areas.
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Online:
EPA Superfund: http://www.epa.gov/superfund
Union Pacific site about lead contamination: http://www.uprr.com/newsinfo/media_kit/epa
