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 1,200 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 mg/kg or greater instead of the previously approved 2,500 mg/kg threshold approved in the original Action Memorandum.

Between 11/17 and 11/26 there were 7 excavations completed for 1200 ppm homes and, 14 homes backfilled and sodded. Punchlist activities continue to be addressed. Accounting issues for new work orders continue to be addressed.  A second ER accountant (Terry) was flown in temporarily from St. louis. Several meetings were attended with Don Bahnke and Black and Veatch to address issues with new Risk Assessment. On the 25th and 26th ER crews prepared for demobilization. Eight crew members demobilized on 11/25, the rest of the ER crew will depart on the morning of 11/26.


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

Removal activity will break for Thanksgiving and return to the site after the holiday. Priority will continue to be given to properties with children 6 years of age or younger.

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.

There is a new grouping of properties that is expected requiring lead-contaminated soil to be excavated (over 400 properties).  All of these properties fall under the amendment to this Action Memorandum changing non-foundation 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 have been over 10,000 properties sampled by Black and Veatch at this time.  Over 5,200 samples have been processed, and over 11,000 accesses agreements have been received