In the late 90’s the Omaha’s County Health department started noticing a rise in children with elevated lead levels in their blood. The department petition the EPA Region Seven out of Kansas City to investigate the cause for the high lead blood levels. As the EPA concluded their investigation, they found out that there used to be a large smelting plant on the river, in the downtown area.
The plant had operated during the late 1800’s to about the early 1900’s, throughout that time emissions from the smoke stacks went into the air, then the prevailing winds across the North and South Omaha settled that emissions into the area, including residential yards. The area the lead covers is the North and South area of Omaha, from the South to the Harrison County line up to the North area at about Read street.
The EPA began their campaign to clean up the land in 1999, with the help of the Core of Engineers who they contracted with. The first step was to clean up the larger areas with high lead levels and then eventually cleaning approximately 14,000 yards. Rumors that the Core of Engineers were beginning to reach the end of their effort made people feel concerned.
“We were a little bit alarmed by that, this is our back yard,” said Zivny.
Charles Fisher, CPL supervisor contributed to the EPA’s lead clean-up with a group of four individuals, through an interactive video game that taught kids about lead poisoning and lead remediation efforts. The video game was developed by the group of four and founded by the EPA. Fisher, as a young kid suffered from lead poisoning.
The Omaha Lead Office approached the Core of Engineers and were able to reach an agreement to continue the efforts.
Zivny said that at the end of this year they will have cleaned an additional 250 yards. The remediation effort constitutes of first sampling the land, determining if the property is eligible for clean-up and then taking out the soil, at least 4 inches and a maximum of 12 inches, from that property. Amended soil is then brought in. From there the property owner is responsible to continue the efforts.
Zivny said that educating the public on the importance of lead poisoning, land remediation and health concerns from lead is one of the most important ways to continue the lead clean-up efforts.
