EPA dedicates $10-$25 million to Madison Co.
The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday that it would dedicate between $10-$25 million of the federal Recovery Act funding to clean up lead contaminated properties in the Fredericktown area.
EPA will use the $10-25 million to support ongoing excavation, replacement, and disposal of approximately 205,000 cubic yards of lead-contaminated residential soil at approximately 800 residential properties. The long-term cleanup action to address approximately 1,100 residential properties began in late 2008 and will continue for an estimated four years. To date, lead-contaminated soil at more than 800 residential properties has been removed and replaced throughout the county. Also included are education efforts and institutional controls on the lead remediation. The Madison County lead abatement area is 498 square miles.
Similar efforts have been allocated to Cherokee County, KS, and the Oronogo area near Joplin, MO. Both were part of the Tri-State Lead District, as Fredericktown was home to the Old Lead Belt, and Mine LaMotte, the oldest commercially viable lead diggings in the state.
April 17th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
While it’s excellent that Madison County will benefit from some of that federal money to put a little more space between people and old tailings some of which contain refined lead, the EPA can be a little crazy about southern Missouri. Most of the counties contain some natural lead at the surface because nature put it there. Man concentrated it, to be sure, especially in the old lead belt and the new lead belt and the tri-state lead region and by the smelters.
But I’ve heard some people say that they want to get all the lead out of southern Missouri. They can throw all the money in the world at it, and tha’s not gonna happen. So I hope they get the lead out of those kid’s yards and all, but without a big fence around half the state the prettiest half by the way we’re still gonna have to deal with lead here.