The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on lead remediation in Omaha, Nebraska, home to the nation’s largest residential Superfund site. However, new soil tests conducted by the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica reveal that many yards still contain harmful levels of lead.

The news organizations tested soil from over 600 properties, including 150 that the EPA reported had been cleaned up. Their findings show that one in ten of these remediated yards still has lead levels exceeding the EPA’s safety threshold. Nearly all previously remediated homes with excessive lead levels had neighbors whose yards also tested high but were never cleaned up.

A notable case is Mary Royers, who bought a house in Omaha in 2022. Despite her yard having been cleaned up by the EPA in 2012, soil tests last fall found lead levels more than 1.5 times higher than what the EPA’s cleanup was supposed to eliminate. In fact, the tests found lead levels higher than before the remediation.

In response, EPA spokesperson Kellen Ashford stated via email that the agency is committed to cleaning up contaminated sites to protect residents and the environment. He noted that the cleanup efforts have led to a dramatic decrease in elevated blood lead levels in Omaha. However, he acknowledged that children in the Omaha site still test high for lead at rates above the national average.

These findings raise concerns about the effectiveness of the EPA’s cleanup efforts in Omaha and suggest that further remediation may be necessary to fully address lead contamination in the area.

Sources