Major Milestone Reached in Protecting Omaha Children
Dublin Core
Title
Major Milestone Reached in Protecting Omaha Children
Subject
Omaha lead remediation success
Description
This is a 2007 news release from a United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) regional administrator announcing the success of the lead remediation in Omaha. This news release appears to be aimed toward the general public in Omaha in an attempt to squash controversy surrounding remediation and get people to be on board with the remediation efforts. Omahans and those keeping up with the lead situation in Omaha had mixed views on the way that Omaha handled lead remediation. Some people believed that the city was not doing enough to make sure that Omaha was safe and that the risk of lead contamination and exposure was minimized.
The Sierra Club was one of the main dissenting voices. They puclished a newsletter detailing the experiences of one Omahan, Barb Brunton. Brunton explains that she was growing vegetables which she and her family ate in her Omaha backyard without realizing that the soil she was growing them in was contaminated with lead and was poisoning her and her family. Some of her children ended up having developmental delays and behavioral problems, which she believes in from the lead contamination in her yard. The Sierra Club condemned Asarco for "spewing lead into the community and violating the Clean Air Act." Brunton explains that even she, a pediatric nurse, was unaware of the lead contamination in her yard and failed to keep her kids safe. Essentially, the Sierra Club argued that the effects of lead from Asarco and other Omaha lead refineries were so devastating to the Omaha community, and for so long, that more needs to be done to remediate this problem. Many Omahans also criticized the USEPA for not doingn enough fix the lead problem as soon as they found out about it. It took several years of testing the soil in Omaha before they officially tackled the problem, and because of this, more people were exposed to lead for a longer period of time than they might have been had the USEPA taken action sooner. Some Omahans even worried that the remediation project as it was done was more of a "Band-Aid fix" than a long-term, permanent solution, because it involved digging up an allocated amount of soil from yards and contaiminated areas and replacing that, without considering whether or not the lead could still be a problem if future digging occurred.
This report uses very convincing language to express the severity of the issues that arise from lead exposure, such as developmental delays, behavioral problems, and learning difficulties, according to the Mayo Clinic. The remediation also created a lot of jobs for Omahians, thus boosting the economy. This news release clearly paints the Superfund as a huge success story in order to get people on board. Interestingly, this news release was released in 2007, which was almost 10 years after Omaha was declared a Superfund site. Because of that, it seems as though this news release’s purpose may have been to remind people of lead contamination in Omaha and sway dissenters to recognize the progress has been made so far.
The Sierra Club was one of the main dissenting voices. They puclished a newsletter detailing the experiences of one Omahan, Barb Brunton. Brunton explains that she was growing vegetables which she and her family ate in her Omaha backyard without realizing that the soil she was growing them in was contaminated with lead and was poisoning her and her family. Some of her children ended up having developmental delays and behavioral problems, which she believes in from the lead contamination in her yard. The Sierra Club condemned Asarco for "spewing lead into the community and violating the Clean Air Act." Brunton explains that even she, a pediatric nurse, was unaware of the lead contamination in her yard and failed to keep her kids safe. Essentially, the Sierra Club argued that the effects of lead from Asarco and other Omaha lead refineries were so devastating to the Omaha community, and for so long, that more needs to be done to remediate this problem. Many Omahans also criticized the USEPA for not doingn enough fix the lead problem as soon as they found out about it. It took several years of testing the soil in Omaha before they officially tackled the problem, and because of this, more people were exposed to lead for a longer period of time than they might have been had the USEPA taken action sooner. Some Omahans even worried that the remediation project as it was done was more of a "Band-Aid fix" than a long-term, permanent solution, because it involved digging up an allocated amount of soil from yards and contaiminated areas and replacing that, without considering whether or not the lead could still be a problem if future digging occurred.
This report uses very convincing language to express the severity of the issues that arise from lead exposure, such as developmental delays, behavioral problems, and learning difficulties, according to the Mayo Clinic. The remediation also created a lot of jobs for Omahians, thus boosting the economy. This news release clearly paints the Superfund as a huge success story in order to get people on board. Interestingly, this news release was released in 2007, which was almost 10 years after Omaha was declared a Superfund site. Because of that, it seems as though this news release’s purpose may have been to remind people of lead contamination in Omaha and sway dissenters to recognize the progress has been made so far.
Creator
John B. Askew, regional USEPA administrator
Source
USEPA
Publisher
USEPA
Date
2007
Contributor
Gabbi Caito
Format
Scan of a news release
Language
English
Type
News release
Identifier
USEPA regional administrator's news release updating on lead remediation efforts in Omaha
Coverage
Omaha lead remediation
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
News release from USEPA administrator boasting of the success of Omaha's lead remediation efforts
Original Format
Scan of a physical news release
Other Media
Citation
John B. Askew, regional USEPA administrator, “Major Milestone Reached in Protecting Omaha Children,” History of Environmental Inequalities, accessed May 19, 2024, https://steppingintothemap.com/inequalities/items/show/138.
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