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 memorandum during the reporting period (most of the activity occurred under the separate removal action for the >1,200 ppm lead-yards).
This brings the total to 79 properties that have been placed under this removal action to date including 32 day cares from November-December 2002.
Elevated Blood-Levels (EBLs) and Day Cares will continue to receive a high priority for scheduling clean-ups throughout the removal action. Also, any residence with a soil-lead concentration of 1,200 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg), where there are children six years of age or younger, will also be given a high priority. This additional priority falls under the separate removal action.
The work crews are planning to depart from the site from December 20, 2003, through the March-April 2004, time-frame due to the severe weather conditions in the Omaha area. The local sub-contractor who supplies the sod cannot cut the sod during these winter months.
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 EPA to allow the use of a portion of the facility.
There was 1 home that was excavated and 1 home that was back-filled this week, operating with two crews under this removal action. A total of 5 homes were excavated and 8 homes back-filled under both removal actions during this reporting period.
During the winter break, the Missouri River Treatment Facility will continue to be made available to the EPA. Current plans are to allow the EPA's START contractor to use some of the office space during the winter to schedule upcoming properties (appointments for access agreements, videotaping, etc.) for Spring 2004 clean-ups. Also, some limited equipment will be left at the facility by the EPA's ERR's contractor to facilitate a quick start-up in the spring.
All of the areas of the Missouri River Treatment Facility that have been utilized by the EPA are being left clean and orderly. Areas that had previously stored lead-contaminated soil were sampled and verified as being clean.
A significant effort has been placed on completing all of the Day Cares and EBL properties before the winter break. All assigned properties that fall into these categories have been completed.
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