UPDATE - EPA to move residents away from Missouri smelter
Date: 18-Jan-02
Country: USA
Author: Zach Howard
EPA and Doe Run Lead Co., the largest U.S. primary lead smelter, on Dec 21 signed an agreement to speed up cleanup at yards, homes, schools, parks and playgrounds and to plan changes in hauling the toxic material by truck and rail.
EPA said its goal is to relocate families most at-risk to lead contamination to furnished housing in the community or as close as possible to Herculaneum, a town of about 2,800 located 32 miles south of St. Louis.
"We're targeting families with young children, six (years old) and under, (and) pregnant women. It is kind of a case by case basis and this is all voluntary," Hattie Thomas, EPA community involvement coordinator, told Reuters.
"While we are doing yard soil replacement and cleaning the interiors of homes, they will have the option to take their children out of that environment," she said.
According to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Division of Environmental Quality, Doe Run has violated the national clean air standard for lead.
Last September, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services stated that lead contamination in Herculaneum presented "a clear and present risk to public health, especially pregnant women and children through age six, and is an imminent and substantial endangerment."
In recent studies, the state determined that 15 percent of children under six within one mile of the smelter have elevated levels of blood-lead. Investigations by the EPA revealed that dust in Herculaneum contained extremely high concentrations of lead, associated with haul routes in and out of town.
The EPA air standard set for lead in October 1978 is 1.5 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air averaged over a calendar quarter.
An executive at Doe Run said it was important to note the relocation was neither mandatory nor permanent.
"We do not think it is necessary because we don't think that it is being based on scientific fact. But nonetheless, the EPA has made the decision to do this," Doe Run president Jeffrey Zelms told Reuters.
It was unclear how long the relocation would last, although Thomas said the U.S. EPA Region 7 will host a public meeting in Herculaneum on Jan 22 to update the community on site activities and future plans.
EPA has said Doe Run will have to spend about $8.8 million by July 2002 on related improvements.
Doe Run has a yearly production capacity of 250,000 tons of refined lead. The smelter has operated at Herculaneum since the 1890s.
