Effort to clean up lead expands to more yards and more money

AURORA, Mo. -- The effort to clean up soil contaminated by lead mining has expanded from three dozen yards in this Southwest Missouri town to more than 150 yards so far, and the cost also is likely to rise.

Earlier this year, Environmental Protection Agency project manager Bryant Burnett and a team of employees used old mining maps, accounts from residents and soil testing to determine the extent of the cleanup of what's known as the Lawrence County Mining Area Superfund Site.

"We've thrown that out the window," he said last week of the systematic search. "It's mushroomed on us, to say the least."

As of Friday, the teams were digging or had cleaned up 157 yards. Other sites to be cleaned include a football and band practice field at Aurora High School that once was a mining site.

Because of the increase in the number of contaminated yards, homes with small children and women of child-bearing age are getting priority, Burnett said, because exposure to high levels of lead can cause neurological problems and learning disabilities.

Despite the work, a relatively low number of people have had their children tested for lead, said Lawrence County Health Department nurse supervisor Janella Spencer.

"We had a few more requests last week, and we did have three people whose yards were being tested," she said. "Those were all returned normal."

Burnett and six technical consultants are directing the cleanup effort.

Workers have to get permission from property owners to test for lead, then the tests are evaluated. If property is deemed "hot," Burnett discusses the situation with the owner, who has to sign an access agreement.

Work begins after the location of underground pipes or utility lines is determined.

Thirteen people work on three excavation crews, with local firms providing clean dirt and hauling. Crews remove up to a foot of soil, replace it and seed the new dirt.

The EPA's exposure limit for lead is 400 parts per million; tests in Aurora show "hot" land with levels ranging from 700 to 2,500 ppm. Besides the larger mining sites suspected in the contamination, there were also many small ones that were little more than pits, Burnett said.

Used on gravel roads

Burnett also suspects that one reason the contamination is so widespread is that mine tailings were used on gravel roads in the area.

Virginia E. Hauser thinks he could be right.

Living in the white frame house her grandparents built, the mother of Missouri first lady Lori Hauser Holden recalled running into the gravel street as a water wagon rolled past to hold down the dust when she was a child.

Now, at 80 years old, she is waiting for a cleanup crew to remove the dirt from part of her front yard.