The Environmental Protection Agency offered an update on Allen County’s Superfund site cleanup last week.
Since the EPA began to sample soil in the area in 2006, crews have tested 2,955 properties and remediated the soil at 1,150 sites. Just 216 remain on the EPA’s clean-up list. Another 23 properties have yet to be tested.
A total of 235,035 tons of contaminated soil have been removed.
In January, however, the EPA lowered the screening threshold for lead contamination. The meeting on Oct. 29 offered information about how that change could affect the area.
Iolan Mary Lou Chard attended the meeting to learn the status of her property. She owns a home along Madison Avenue with a vacant lot next door.
“Lots of kids play there so I want to make sure it’s safe,” she said. “Properties all around me were replaced. I was an island. So I was concerned.”
The EPA had previously sampled her property and found only a minimal level of lead contamination. The screening levels did not reach the EPA’s minimum, even at the new standard.
Chard said she felt relieved.
Under the new screening guidance, the EPA now recommends investigating areas — including residential properties, daycares, schools and churches — with lead in soil at 200 parts per million (ppm) or higher. Previously, the screening level was 400 ppm. The EPA also recommends screening at 100 ppm if there are other sources of lead such as lead paint, or lead in the water and/or air.
Screening levels are not cleanup levels. Although the EPA lowered the screening level, it has yet to determine if that means crews will go back and clean up properties screened between 200 and 400 ppm.
Alex Scheper, regional project manager for the EPA, gave the presentation and answered questions from those in the audience. About 16 community members attended. Representatives of the Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Departments and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment also offered booths for blood testing for lead, and other health-related information.
SCHEPER OUTLINED the EPA’s efforts to clean up abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites, which began with an act of Congress in 1980. The hazardous substance trust fund, nicknamed Superfund, was established to pay for cleanups when no viable responsible party is found.
The goal is to protect human health and the environment by cleaning up polluted sites, and returning those sites to productive use, Scheper said.
Lead is targeted for cleanup because it poses serious health risks, particularly to children under age 7 and those who are pregnant and nursing. Lead is a toxic metal that can cause damage to the brain and nervous system, and cause learning and behavior problems, slowed growth and development, and hearing and speech problems. That can lead to a lower IQ, decreased ability to pay attention and underperformance in school.
Other potential health effects in children and adults are headache, tiredness, stomach pain and constipation, loss of appetite, sleeping problems, mood changes and high blood pressure.
