LINCOLN — The man shook his head in disbelief when he learned that state officials knew three years ago that piles of hazardous material were just a few hundred feet from his home.“They should have informed us about that,” said Sidney Fomby Jr., 61, of Lincoln. “They should have let the whole city of Lincoln know. My grandkids have played down by it.”
Fomby lives directly across from the old Lincoln Metals Corporation/Heartland Faucet site at 248 Foundry Lane. State and federal officials say hazardous materials with high levels of lead are on and around the abandoned brass foundry in Lincoln.
According to documents obtained by The Daily Home, Alabama Department of Environmental Management officials knew the old brass foundry site had high levels of lead contamination more than three years ago.
But Jerome Hand, public relations director for ADEM, defended the agency not informing the community around First Avenue Park in Lincoln about the hazardous lead waste.
“Our data wasn’t complete,” Hand said, adding that if ADEM notified the public of the hazardous material “prematurely, it could have sent people in the wrong direction.”
He noted that ADEM’s assessment, completed in 2005, recommended the removal and proper disposal of the lead contaminated material.
The same environmental assessment also points out soil samples were collected and analyzed in December 2003, confirming high levels of lead are present inside and outside the fence surrounding the now defunct brass foundry.
“The debris piles and associated soil are of known contamination and are a direct contact exposure risk,” the assessment report states. “From these results, it is evident that the debris piles and surrounding soil are highly contaminated with metals.”
In addition to arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper and zinc, high levels of lead were found in soil samples collected in 2003.
“Lead was detected in all the samples at concentrations above the hazardous waste benchmark of 5.0 mg/L …” the assessment report states.
The highest reading of lead from soil samples collected at the site in 2003, 96.9 mg/L, was actually outside the northern fence boundary, according to results recorded in the assessment prepared by Linda Olding, a pollution control specialist with ADEM’s Environmental Assessment Section.
Fomby, who can see the front gate of the abandoned foundry from the front door of his home, said the gate was left open at times.
“That gate was open but someone went down there and put a lock on it recently,” he said, adding that ADEM should have alerted residents who live around the foundry about the hazardous waste left at the site.
Fomby’s cousin, Raymond Fomby, 72, of 529 First Ave., in Lincoln, has a close up view of the piles of lead contaminated waste behind the abandoned foundry. His back yard joins the foundry property.
“That’s where the contaminated dirt is,” Fomby said pointing from his back yard. “And they didn’t tell anybody. They should have told us.”
Lincoln Mayor Lew Watson said he and other city officials were unaware the abandoned foundry was contaminated with lead until an official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asked permission to test soil at First Avenue Park, which is adjacent to the foundry site.
“I think the public should have been notified,” Watson said. “I think we should have been notified.”
Lincoln residents who live near the foundry also found out about the lead contamination after an EPA official approached them about taking soil samples from their front and back yards.
Leonardo Ceron, who works with the EPA Emergency Response and Removal Branch and who is also the federal on-scene coordinator for the old foundry, said last week he doesn’t believe there are high concentrations of lead in the residential area and park surrounding the Lincoln Metals Corporation/Heartland Faucet foundry site.
He said there does appear to be high concentrations of foundry sand, which is contaminated with lead, in a natural drainage ditch that runs from the foundry site to Blue Eye Creek.
Ceron said results from soil samples collected last month should be completed by the end of June.
Ceron vowed that all lead is to be removed from the site and wherever the EPA may find it.
He said cleanup of the site is expected to begin before the end of September and should only take two or three months, if no problems are encountered.
