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.

The plan is to continue the implementation of this removal action that includes excavating lead-contaminated soil from residential properties with one or more non-foundation soil concentrations greater than 2,500 mg/kg.

On November 4, 2003 an Action Memorandum Amendment was signed. This amendment changes the scope of work to identify a highly contaminated property as a residence with a soil concentration of 1,200 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) or greater instead of the previously approved 2,500 mg/kg threshold approved in the original Action Memorandum.

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 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow the use of a portion of the facility.  

There were 5 homes that were excavated and 1 home that was backfilled this week operating with three crews under this removal action.  A total of 8 homes were excavated and 1 home backfilled under both removal actions during this reporting period.

Attached is a table that lists the work progress for this reporting period and project totals.

A new piece of equipment has been mobilized to the site this week.  It is a very small excavator that will be utilized in advance of the larger excavators on scheduled properties.  It can excavate a drip zone quickly and will also be used in very tight areas of properties to accelerate the work crews.  It will be used on a trial basis while the efficiencies are being measured.

Due to the up-coming severe winter conditions in the Omaha area, this removal action is scheduled to shut-down after December 20, 2003.  The projected mobilization date of March 2004 will vary depending on the sod company being able to cut sod.

Due to a new grouping of properties that will require lead-contaminated soil to be excavated (over 330 properties), a third excavation crew has been mobilized and commence work on November 3, 2003.  All of these properties fall under the amendment to this Action Memorandum changing non-foundations concentrations greater than 1,200 ppm of lead to be eligible for removals instead of 2,500 ppm of lead.

Overall, involving the entire Omaha Lead Site, there has been over 10,000 properties that have been sampled by Black and Veach at this time.  Over 5,200 samples have been processed and over 11,000 property access agreements have been received.

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 completed and has been sampled.  Disposal is pending based on those sample results.