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.
This week the ERRS Health and Safety Manager was on site to conduct a H&S audit and to conduct personal air monitoring on some of the workers.
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.
Continue excavation and backfill of properties with greater than 1,200 mg/kg lead concentrations is soil that are non-foundation.
One property on Poppleton was determined to be incorrectly drawn which caused it to be included in the properties to be excavated. Upon further review it was determined that the property was contaminated only from lead-based paint and therefore not eligible for removal under this action.
The ERRS contractor prepared a written summary of the companies hiring practices and subcontracting procedures at this site for EPA personnel to take to the next LSOC meeting.
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.
Complaint calls on property damage continue to be added to the "punch list" for items needing repaired.
Due to the number of yards needing excavation now that the action level for highly contaminated yards has been lowered to 1,200 mg/kg, a third excavation crew is on-site.
Overall, involving the entire Omaha Lead site, there have been over 10,000 properties 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.
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