Work has resumed this month to remove lead-tainted soil from residential properties throughout Iola.
Melinda Luetke, on-scene coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency, noted more than 85 of the 350 targeted properties have been cleared as part of the remediation project’s first phase.
“It’s been going very well,” Luetke said. “Crews took a two-week break before we started back up (Feb. 29). We were expecting worse weather than we had, and it looks like the nice weather is going to hold.”
Crews are removing the top 2 feet of soil from the properties contaminated with lead.
The lead has been a part of Iola’s landscape since zinc and lead smelters were used in the early years of operation.
The industries are long gone, but their tailings remain — and remain a health hazard, according to Chris Whitley, EPA spokesman.
A study more than 10 years ago found more than 130 properties surveyed in Iola — most near where the smelters operated in the east part of town — had unsafe levels of lead.
Those studies were voluntary, in which samples were taken from properties upon the landowner’s request.
It was evident then that additional testing was required.
Subsequent testing prompted EPA officials to place Iola on its National Priorities List, as a Superfund site.
THE FIRST PHASE targets properties with lead-soil levels at 800 parts per million or above.
Once the initial 350 properties are cleared — Luetke estimates sometime next summer — work will begin on Phase 2.
Then, another round of cleanup will target properties with 400 ppm or above.
Meanwhile, EPA officials still are trying to reach another 350 property owners in town to get their properties tested.
