Timing: Too Late?

Timing: Too Late?

EPA Testing Lead Levels in children, and the official ratification of the Superfund project in Omaha

From the Fremont Tribune entry in this exhibit, we know that as of January 2002, the EPA Superfund project in Omaha was still in the very early stages although bureaucratic and civil dialogue on the subject matter was certainly occurring. This artifact is in many ways worrisome because of the questions it poses us on the chronology of the EPA project in Omaha. As of May 2003, more than a year after The Fremont Tribune published their article “Fewer Children Test Positive for Lead Poisoning”, Omaha is still not on the official EPA priority list for Superfund. Luckily, the article above indicates that Omaha was added briefly after its date of publication. What was happening in this intermediate time period? Over a year of discussion and working on financing lead to a project that was too little (as elucidated by The Argus-Leader) too late.
Unfortunately, the project is added to the Federal Register and ratified too late in many meanings of the term. As stated in the article, blood testing in Douglas County in 2002 actually found that 437 children tested positive for lead poisoning. The Fremont Tribune article from 2002 that cited decreasing blood levels between 1997 and 2000, used the relative decrease in blood poisoning levels to affirm that perhaps lead levels will continue to permanently decline because of the closing of the ASARCO plant. However, this 2003 Lincoln Journal Star article shows us that in 2002 the circumstances were just as, even more dire than those in 2000. For all intents and purposes, the Superfund was indeed necessary and was ratified too late to help many poisoned children. The article certainly appears to rebuke the assertion of individuals cited by the 2002 Fremont Tribune article that perhaps the project is not necessary. Together these two stories from different papers tell a sad story about the early Superfund project timeline: this project was too late to help hundreds of children that were contaminated in an intermittent period where project planning and questioning was occurring. According to this 2003 Lincoln Journal Star Article, the EPA has been aware of and “working toward” the Omaha Superfund site designation since 1998 when councilman Frank Brown initially asked the agency to investigate elevated blood levels. This timeline now shows that it took a five-year period before work began in Omaha, from request to action.
The geographically disproportionate effect of lead poisoning was also known at the time and is referenced in both articles. The knowledge that this problem selectively hurt specific communities in Omaha does not seem to have changed the course of the EPA project. Both articles reference the area where doctors found lead poisoning is most common: east of 45th street. According to the Fremont Tribune article: “The EPA has conducted more extensive soil testing in Omaha than in most cities being considered for a Superfund designation”, according to Steve Sanders, the Omaha Superfund attorney. This artifact above gives an update to testing in the east-of-45th-street area, indicating that the EPA intends to “test most of 40,000 yards in the 20- square mile area under investigation”. Whether this extensive testing, which began before 2002 and spanned such a great time period made significant difference in the speed at which Superfund work itself began in Omaha is unclear. For instance, the Fremont Tribune article notes that most communities typically receive 30 to 50 tests, whereas Omaha received more than 1,700 as of 2002.

AP, Lincoln Journal Star

Lincoln Journal Star

AP, Lincoln Journal Star

May 3rd, 2003

Ben Schauer

English

Digital Media

Newspaper Article