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Researchers reveal contaminated factory sites unknown to regulators

San Diego, April 2 - Investigators have discovered the sites of 640 former lead smelting factories - most apparently unknown to regulatory authorities - with potentially hazardous levels of lead in the soil where the plants once stood. Regulators were unaware of at least 430 of the sites, many of which are near residential areas in some of the country's major cities.

The locations of the former plants were reported here today at the 221st national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. Factories operated on the sites between 1931-1964.

The sites were discovered by William P. Eckel, a doctoral student at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. Eckel, now with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Virginia, conducted the research as part of his Ph.D. thesis. He did the investigation in collaboration with his advisor, Gregory Foster, Ph.D., an associate professor of chemistry at the school, and Michael Rabinowitz, Ph.D., a geochemist with the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. The study is published in the April issue of the peer-reviewed American Journal of Public Health.

High levels of lead are hazardous to health, especially that of young children. They can develop permanent learning disabilities as a result of inhaling or ingesting excessive amounts of lead.

All of the sites in this study were former "secondary" lead smelting plants, producing usable lead from things like automobile batteries, wheel weights and cable covers. Primary lead smelting uses lead ore.

The soil of nearly half of the sites has potentially hazardous lead levels, which in some cases dramatically exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards, according to Eckel. Nearly half these sites are in eight states, he added: California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. No such sites were found in 11 states: Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.

Eckel examined multiple federal and state documents to verify that the sites he found were unlisted in government records.

"Of the sites I know about, the levels in soil can be as high as one to 10 percent by weight," Eckel said. The EPA standard for lead in residential properties is 400 parts per million, or 0.04 percent by weight. For industrial properties, the standard is 1000 parts per million, or 0.10 percent. "This exceeds that by orders of magnitude." Some of the sites "are quite close to [current] residential areas," according to Eckel.

Large cities where Eckel discovered many of the sites include Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Jersey City, Los Angeles, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and San Francisco.

Eckel sampled eight of 12 sites he visited in Baltimore and Philadelphia. "Seven of those eight appear contaminated either above the residential or industrial standard," he said. The one that was not above EPA standards had been paved. "As long as it's paved, it's not a problem," Eckel added.

Because of the small sample size, Eckel and his collaborators emphasized, "We don't know if the sites are really hazardous or not until they are investigated properly. Our paper indicates potential sites that need to be looked at."

Eckel identified the sites from old industry directories. He believes they were unknown to present-day authorities because "most of them went out of business before the regulatory agencies concerned [i.e., EPA and various state agencies] were created." EPA was established in 1970.

The researchers emphasized that the study is limited in its scope since it only examined directories for selected years. They added that some very small companies might have escaped their notice because they were not listed in the directories.

Lead poisoning, especially in children, is often attributed to lead-based paint, according to Eckel. "But in the local areas where these sites exist, they may explain at least part of the lead burden," he added.

Fewer than 30 plants of the type believed to account for the contamination were operating in the United States in 1994, according to Eckel.

The poster on this research, ENVR 194, will be presented during Sci-Mix at 8:00 p.m., Monday, April 2, and during the general papers session at 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, April 4. Both presentations are at the San Diego Convention Center, Sails Pavilion.

Editor's Note: Attached is Appendix A, a list of the "Battery Lead Smelter" Sites Apparently Unknown to Federal and State Authorities, and Appendix B, a list of "Babbitt Metal and Solders Smelters" Sites Unknown to Federal and State Authorities.

William P. Eckel is a doctoral student (environmental science and public policy) at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and an agronomist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Arlington, Va.

Gregory Foster, Ph.D., is an associate professor of chemistry at the George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Michael Rabinowitz, Ph.D., is a geochemist with the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

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