Thu Sep 09 2010
OTTAWA -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has scheduled a public meeting to discuss expanding the probe into buried lead contamination in Ottawa.
The U.S. EPA Region 5, Ohio EPA and local partners will host an open house-style public meeting from 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday at Ottawa-Glandorf High School.
Jeff Loehrke, Ottawa's community development director, said the village hopes questions about when the clean-up process will begin, how the process will proceed and other questions will be answered at the meeting.
"There are a lot of people who are interested in finding out what the results are," he said this morning. "I believe the EPA will be asking to look at other sites they didn't look at before."
Loehrke said he was not sure how any EPA clean-up efforts would affect flood mitigation efforts in town. The lead contamination concern was raised this year after a family tried to rebuild their home at 440 E. Second St. after flooding.
"The one area that they did find elevated levels was on East Second Street not far from Blanchard River," Loehrke said. "We will be interested in seeing how it will affect future mitigation efforts presented to us from the Army Corps of Engineers. We don't want to have our hands tied when trying to fix the flooding problem."
In April, the EPA collected soil samples from four residential properties in Ottawa where a local GTE/Sylvania/Philips facility allegedly buried lead-contaminated glass and waste materials, primarily from the production of television tubes, according to the EPA. (For many years, lead was used in glass making.) The facility is now closed. The material may have been buried as long ago as the 1940s.
Two soil samples were taken from the East Second Street property. According to the EPA, one sample had a "significant" level of elevated lead -- 101 milligrams of lead per liter. To be considered non-hazardous, a sample must have less than 5 milligrams per liter. Testing of the other sample determined it was non-hazardous for any substances.
Safe levels of lead were found at the other three sites sampled.
The U.S. EPA and Ohio EPA are now expanding the investigation to determine if there are other properties with buried waste. If that turns out to be the case, the agencies will work with local officials to develop a comprehensive clean-up plan.
It is possible that federal Superfund monies may be used to finance clean-up efforts. The Superfund program kicks in when there's not an obvious company or individual which generated the contamination. If responsible parties are found, they are assessed the clean-up costs.
Residents with information that may be helpful for this investigation are urged to attend the meeting or contact EPA community involvement coordinator Virginia Narsete at 312-886-4359 or narsete.virginia@epa.gov.
Elevated lead-soil contamination levels present the greatest health risks to pregnant women and young children. High blood-lead levels can cause learning and behavior problems as well as lower IQs. Children are most easily exposed by playing on bare dirt spots and swallowing the contaminated soil via hand-to-mouth ingestion.
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