United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region VII
POLLUTION REPORT

Subject: 

The Omaha Lead Site is located in the Omaha metropolitan area including Council Bluffs, and Carter Lake, Iowa.  Specific boundaries of the site have not yet been defined because the sampling activities for the entire area of investigation are not complete.

Several businesses and manufacturing companies used or processed lead at their facilities in the Omaha metropolitan area.  ASARCO Incorporated (ASARCO) operated a lead refinery at 500 Douglas St. in Omaha 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 Inc. lead battery recycling plant located at 555 Farnam Street in Omaha was a secondary smelter of lead from discarded lead batteries, closing in 1982.  The blast furnace used to smelt the lead at the Gould plant emitted lead particles into the air from that smelter.

There was limited activity conducted under this action memo during this reporting period (most activity occurred under the separate action memo for the >2,500ppm yards).  There were 4 properties excavated and two properties backfilled during this 5 day reporting period.  

The weekly tracking sheet is included as an attachment, listing the project totals.

A portion of the reporting periods work involved meeting with residents who complained of damage to their sidewalks and/or driveways.  There is a small percentage of properties that end up with minor concrete damage or some other type of miscellaneous damage during the course of the removal action. Some of the concrete sidewalks or driveways are in extremely poor condition prior to EPA's presence, resulting in the minor damage.

This brings the total to 83 properties that have been placed under this removal action to date including 32 day cares from Nov.-Dec. 2002).

There has been 66 EBLs and Day Cares that have been completed at this time during both phases of the removal action.

There has been a total of 3,480 cubic yards of lead contaminated soil excavated, 64 properties backfilled with 3,130 cubic yards of clean soil.

Due to a new grouping of properties that are expected and will require lead contaminated soil to be excavated (334 properties) involving the other removal action (expected to be amended to 1,200 ppm), a third excavation crew is scheduled to be mobilized and commence work on November 3, 2003.  However, it should be noted that at all times during this project, special emphasis will be given to homes with elevated blood-lead levels and day cares.

The third 1,000 ton stockpile has now been sent to the Loess Hills Regional Sanitary Landfill located in Malvern, Iowa 51551.  There is a separation of billing for the two separate removal actions for accountability purposes.

A fourth 1,000 ton stockpile has been sampled and is scheduled for transportation and disposal in the near future.