LINCOLN – Residents say they are glad the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is removing soil contaminated with high levels of lead from the First Avenue Park community. “They are finally starting on it,” said Raymond Fomby, who lives along First Avenue. “I’m glad to see them start on it, but this should have started a long time ago.”
Fomby’s back yard is adjacent to the abandoned Lincoln Metals Corporation/Heartland Faucet site, located at 248 Foundry Lane, where hazardous waste is now being removed.
Alabama Department of Environmental Management documents obtained by The Daily Home revealed lead contaminated sand was leaving the old foundry site as early as 1992, but residents living near and around the facility knew nothing of the lead contamination flowing from the foundry property and into their community and public park.
In 2003, ADEM officials scientifically documented the lead contamination in and around the old brass foundry, but no records were found indicating state environmental officials ever informed the First Avenue Park residents of the hazardous waste left behind by corporations that used the site for more than 50 years.
Soil contaminated with high levels of lead was also found in the First Avenue Community Park, which is also adjacent to the old foundry site.
“It’s no telling where all that sand is,” said James Carmichael, who lives along First Avenue and once worked at the brass foundry. “And it’s no telling how deep it is in the ground. They could be digging forever.”
Workers have fenced off the property, including a portion of the First Avenue Community Park, where soil with high levels of lead-contaminated was found. Contract workers have begun the excavation work to remove the contaminated soil.
“I wish it had been done earlier, but I’m glad to see it done now,” said Lincoln Mayor Lew Watson.
Watson said city officials and residents who live in the First Avenue Park community were not informed of the hazardous waste until last year when EPA officials began asking permission to test soil in residents’ yards and in the First Avenue Park.
Watson said city officials and the First Avenue Park community should have been informed of the lead contamination, not by the EPA, but by ADEM — and much sooner.
However, he’s happy that work has begun to remove the hazardous waste.
“I think it’s great they are at the site and starting this cleanup, getting rid of all this potential hazardous waste in this community,” Watson said.
Watson said he visited the site Tuesday, and it appears workers are doing a professional job in removing the hazardous waste.
EPA officials say the $2.5 million cleanup could take up to three months to complete.
Watson said workers will demolish and remove the old foundry building, as well as remove all lead-contaminated soil, before restoration work begins.
Residents in the First Avenue Park community say it appears workers are not driving dump trucks, loaded with the lead-contaminated soil, through their community, but using a less traveled back road to access the main highway, Alabama 77.
Dawn Harris-Young, with EPA’s Office of External Affairs Media Relations, said contract workers, on average, will remove about 2 feet of top soil, but that doesn’t mean lead-contaminated soil deeper than 2 feet would not be removed.
She said it is a judgment call that is made at the site, as to whether lead-contaminated soil deeper than 2 feet is removed from the site or whether it is just covered with top soil.
Young said soil removal depends on the level of lead in the soil and whether the lead-contaminated soil poses any hazards to human health or the environment.
The cleanup is funded through the Superfund Lead Site program, she said.
Young said the lead-contaminated soil would be treated on-site.
Lead-contaminated soil can be treated, rendering it non-hazardous. The lead-tainted soil can then be transported to a Subtitle D landfill, which is a non-hazardous waste landfill.
Young said the EPA has not determined where the lead-contaminated soil would be disposed, although she said the contaminated waste would go to a proper facility designated for that type waste.
