After years of cleanup, lead pollution still troubles town

HERCULANEUM, Mo. -- Linda Dunn's neighborhood is now on the edge of a ghost town.

Located in the shadow of the Doe Run Co.'s lead smelter, this tiny town 30 miles south of St. Louis is characterized by empty homes and vacated neighborhoods.

The company bought more than 130 houses after the city was contaminated by lead particles from the smelter. It tore some down and left others vacant.

Dunn said the process has taken away the friendly neighborhoods where she remembers children playing years ago. Now she simply hopes Doe Run will pay for her home so she can start anew somewhere else.

"This is the only street where they went down the middle rather than taking both sides," she told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I want them to buy us out."

Nearly five years after the widespread lead contamination of streets, yards and houses, this town of 2,800 remains one of only two places in the United States that fail to meet the federal Clean Air Act standard for lead.

State and federal regulators are still grappling with ways to cleanse lead from the environment.

On Friday, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources proposed a new plan for Doe Run to minimize releases from the plant and meet federal air standards for lead, according to the Post-Dispatch.

Doe Run's smelter continues to operate, possibly introducing even more lead into the environment.

Despite a truck wash at the smelter and a regular street sweeping regimen, the EPA found dangerously high concentrations of lead on some city streets last summer.

Gary Hughes, general manager at the Doe Run smelter, said that recontamination "is still an open and unsettled question" and that the data were still under review.

Emissions have reached their lowest levels in the smelter's history, he said.

Records show Doe Run plant generated just over 28 tons of lead emissions in 2005, roughly on par with previous years. Traces of lead have been found in the soil across the river in Illinois.

Air quality near the plant has improved since 2001, according to monitoring data. But quarterly emissions exceeded the National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 1.5 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air at the nearby Broad Street monitor five times since January 2005.

In 2002, state health officials reported that nearly half of the children under age 6 living within a half-mile of the Doe Run smelter had elevated levels of lead in their blood.

Lead poisoning has been linked to learning disabilities, behavioral problems, anemia and kidney disorders.

Doe Run's buyouts have removed many young children from harm's way. Elevated blood-lead levels inside the Herculaneum ZIP code have dropped markedly.

DNR's latest plan would change the way lead ore is handled within the plant, would seek to prevent lead dust from escaping buildings and would reinforce how trucks are washed before leaving the plant.

The plan also calls for Doe Run to perform frequent building inspections and undertake "continual improvement" projects, said John Rustige, DNR project manager.

Bill Whitmer, Herculaneum city administrator, hopes the land surrounding the smelter can be revitalized with light-industrial businesses.