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| Sierra Club Organizer Cammy Watkins stands in front of her childhood home frustrated that the Bush Administration allowed the Superfund trust to go bankrupt. |
The Omaha Lead Superfund Site was one of the best kept secrets in the city. Up until recently many of the 16,000 residents affected by the problem were completely oblivious to the issue. The parties that seem to be most involved in remediation of the area are organizations, city governing offices, and potential responsible parties (PRP).
Union Pacific Railroad has taken a special interest in the site and thus funded a Community Advisory Group (CAG). The CAG is comprised of few community members, partially because meetings are held during the average community member's work day. The lack of community involvement in the CAG is a concern that is raised by many community members.
Janet Bonet, Secretary of the Spring Lake Neighborhood Association, is one of the few community members involved in the CAG. Janet has repeatedly expressed her dislike of the lack of community involvement in an issue that affects the community deeply. "In our lives on the streets of the Superfund lead site, we do not have time to sit across from people who get paid to pretend to care about our kids and our homes while we really need to be at home taking care of our homes and kids."
The Omaha Lead Site (OLS) includes surface soils present at residential properties, child care facilities, schools, and other residential-type properties in Eastern Omaha. The total Omaha Lead site is approximately 8,840 acres, making it one of the largest residential lead sites in the country(1). The lead contamination in Omaha is predominantly the responsibility of the ASARCO lead smelter plant which operated for over 100 years and was finally closed in 1997(2). The city of Omaha purchased the land where the ASARCO plant was located after it was closed and cleaned up.
Today, Bush Administration policies are forcing Nebraska taxpayers to cleanup the mess corporate polluters created. Since the implementation of the Superfund trust in 1980, polluters have been held accountable for paying to clean up the neighborhoods and communities affected by toxic waste such as lead. In 2004 funding for Superfund sites decreased by 34 percent compared to funding levels in 1993(3). The Bush Administration is the first to not even attempt to reinstate the polluter pays tax and thus the Superfund trust depleted in September of 2003(4). Under the Bush administration completed clean ups have fallen by 50% compared to clean ups completed between 1997 and 2000(5). This means that the OLS may not receive adequate funding to support clean up.
Some of the Omaha community members most affected by the Superfund lead site live in the lower income portions of Omaha, which is another possible reason for lack of involvement. Janet expressed that the families who live in the Superfund site do not just live with only one set of community issues. "We have to look at the bigger picture … this is just one of several issues that the community is living through or under." Janet then echoed the same concerns of other Eastern Omaha residents that the city is built around them and not for them. "Our neighborhoods are sliced and diced for the sake of moving people through us not to us."
According to the 2002 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, 12 percent of people in Omaha are at the poverty level. Of that statistic, 16 percent of related children fewer than 18 years of age were below the poverty level(6). This means that some of the children living in the most impoverished areas are within the Superfund lead site and lack the financial resources to obtain proper medical care. Fortunately, organizations like Lead Safe Omaha Coalition (LSOC), Douglas County Health Department (DCHD) and Head Start have made it a priority to address the blood lead levels (BLLs) in the children of Omaha. The Douglas County Health Department recommends that children living in the lead site be tested for lead each year until the age of 6 years.
There is a better way: the Bush Administration needs to push to reinstate the polluter pays tax. By requiring polluters to clean up the messes they made, toxic waste sites would be cleaned up quicker and in greater numbers. The effects of lead poisoning are irreversible and permanent. The longer it takes to fix this problem the more damage will be done to our community's children.
Janet, like most community members can visualize solutions to the
lead problems easily. "Let Superfund dollars clean up the dirt -
make the polluters pay for it. Help us get the lead paint out of
the houses or at least sealed under latex paint. Both have to be
done; let's figure out how to do it and stop putting obstacles in
the road."
For more information:
Sierra Club Organizer, Cammy Watkins
(402) 551-9480
camellia.watkins@sierraclub.org
Omaha Lead Site Community Advisory Group
www.olscag.com
Sierra Club Volunteer, Dorothy Lanphier
(402) 551-9480
http://nebraska.sierraclub.org
- Black and Veatch Special Projects Corporation. Community involvement plan, Omaha lead superfund site, Omaha, Nebraska: US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7. June 2004.
- Black and Veatch Special Projects Corporation Remedial Investigation: Residential yard soil, Omaha lead site, Omaha, Nebraska: US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7. June 9, 2004.
- General Accounting Office, Superfund Program: Breakdown of Appropriations Data, GAO-04-787R Superfund Program, May 14, 2004.
- US EPA, Fact sheet, "Superfund Trust Fund and Taxes: Setting the Record Straight," October 7, 2003.
- ibid
- Black and Veatch Special Projects Corporation. Community involvement plan, Omaha lead superfund site, Omaha, Nebraska: US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7. June 2004.
Photo courtesy Cammy Watkins.
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