The Environmental Protection Agency formally proposed Iola be included as a “Superfund” site to clear the way for federal funding to pay for another massive soil cleanup effort within the city.
Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country, according to an EPA press release.
Funding would pay for cleanup of contaminants from United Zinc and other smelters that were in operation in and near Iola in the earliest years of the 20th century. Lead is the most prevalent of the contaminants, although traces of arsenic, cadmium and zinc also are associated with lead and zinc smelting.
In order to qualify for federal funding, EPA officials must place the United Zinc site on its National Priorities List. EPA officials announced this month that it is adding 12 new hazardous waste sites to its priorities list, with eight more having been formally proposed. Iola is among the eight proposed.
While the bulk of the funds would come from the federal government, some costs would be reimbursed by the state. Iola would bear no costs for the cleanup.
EPA is requesting comments until Nov. 15 on the proposal to add Iola to the Superfund site. Comments should include the reference docket number EPA-HQ-SFUND-1012-0599. Comments may be sent to www.regulations.gov or via email to [email protected]. Letters also may be mailed to Docket Coordinator, Headquarters, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CERCLA Docket Office, Mail Code 5035T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20460. The reference docket number must be included.
Preliminary estimates peg clean-up costs at $9 million. The federal government spent $2 million on soil cleanup in Iola in 2006, and knew at the time of more contaminated land in the city. That means the city’s inclusion on the priorities list is a near certainty.
A study in 2006 found more than 130 properties surveyed in Iola — many located near where zinc smelters operated — had unsafe levels of lead. Those studies were largely voluntary, in which samples were taken from properties only upon the landowner’s request.
Properties that had more than 800 parts per million of lead-soil concentration were remediated by removing at least two feet of topsoil, replaced with “clean” dirt and re-seeded with grass.
Roughly 400 other properties had less than 800 ppm of lead, but more than 400 ppm, and should be cleaned up as well, according to the EPA.
More than 1,700 properties in all will be tested. The project will cover primarily residential properties, with commercial sites on the east edge of town and near the old IMP boat plant in west Iola also included. While some communities worry about the stigma of being considered a Superfund site, EPA officials said the true concerns should lie with Iolans who own property that contained known health hazards that could hamper land values if not remediated.
Lead-tainted soil is of the highest concern for children 6 and younger.
