United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region VII
POLLUTION REPORT

Subject: 

The site is located in the Omaha metropolitan area and encompasses Council Bluffs, Iowa, Carter Lake, Iowa, and east Omaha. It is centered around downtown Omaha, Nebraska.  ASARCO Incorporated (ASARCO) operated a lead refinery at 500 Douglas Street in Omaha, Nebraska, for over 100 years beginning in the 1870s.  The operation of the refinery ceased in 1997.  As a routine part of the refinery operation, lead particles were emitted into the atmosphere at the refinery.  In addition, the Gould Incorporated Lead Battery Recycling Plant was located at 555 Farnam street in Omaha and was a secondary smelter of lead from discarded lead batteries. The blast furnace used to smelt the lead at the Gould plant emitted lead particles into the air from that refinery.  The Gould plant closed in 1982.  Several other facilities in the Omaha area used lead in their manufacturing processes.  A few of these included Carter White Lead at 21st and Locust streets which produced white lead paint bases and red lead and litharge protective coatings until 1936, Omaha Shot and Lead which later became Lawrence Shot and Lead, and then became National Lead Company which manufactured lead shot by melting pig lead, Grant Storage Battery Company, Storage Battery Factory, and Exide Corporation which manufactured lead storage batteries.  Numerous other locations in the Omaha area such as foundries, iron works, metal salvaging companies and other manufacturers used or processed lead at their facilities.

On March 25,2004, an Action Memorandum Amendment was signed. This amendment changes the scope of work to include daycare facilities and elevated blood levels (EBLs) that were previously addressed under the first action memorandum, and still addresses highly contaminated properties with a soil concentration of 1,200 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg).  There will no longer be two separate sets of pollution reports (POLREPs) prepared for this site as all work will be conducted under one delivery order for ERRS and one task order for mini-START.

Continued activities are being centralized from the Missouri River Treatment Plant located at 5600 S 10th Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68107-3501. The city of Omaha has partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow the use of a portion of the facility.

This weeks activities focused on continued repairs from the damaged property list from last year, conducting pre-walk thru visits before excavation, and excavation of yards (which began on 3/30/04).  On-scene coordinator (OSC) Dan Garvey attended a public availability meeting on the evening of March 30, 2004, to answer questions regarding the excavation and contracting issues.  This meeting and two other meetings were also attended by additional EPA personnel from Kansas City.

Continued prioritization will be given to EBLs and day care facilities, and highly contaminated properties where children seven years of age or younger live.

The sod subcontractor is scheduled to begin cutting and placing sod on April 4, 2004.  The Missouri River Treatment facility has verbally to allow the EPA to utilize a portion of the facility all of this year.  The city has offered to extend the current access agreement with the EPA that presently expires in May 2004.  The EPA was informed that an extension through the end of 2004 would be prepared and sent to the EPA counsel.

There is a list of over 570 properties, with greater than 1,200 ppm lead, that is currently being prioritized for this phase of the project.

The list of this years EBLs was received.  Pre-walk thrus are being scheduled and excavation should begin on those properties on April 12, 2004.

Prioritization will be given to children with EBLs, day care facilities and other high risk factors such as highly contaminated properties.  After those prioritized properties have been cleaned up, geographic locations will be utilized to maximize available resources.