Two North Dallas Communities At Opposite Ends Of Income Spectrum Share Common Bond: Both Were Contaminated By Industrial Lead For Nearly 50 Years

In Dallas, Texas, The Dallas Morning News:

• The low-income neighborhood of older wood-frame homes in West Dallas is a far cry from the suburb of newly built brick houses in Frisco 30 miles to the north.
  
  But the two North Texas communities share a bond: Both were contaminated by industrial lead for nearly half a century.
  
  The 1984 closure of RSR Corp.’s smelter, where used car batteries were recycled, was just the beginning of West Dallas’ struggles with lead. Contamination from the smelter still exists there today, residents say. That raises questions about the road ahead for Frisco, where cleanup is just starting at the Exide Technologies smelter that shut down [].
  
  Overwhelming evidence points to the dangers of lead. And a strong link exists between the amount of lead in soil and the amount of lead exposure in children. They are the ones most susceptible to lead’s harmful effects because of their developing brains. Even small amounts of lead in a child’s blood can affect IQ scores, academic achievement and the ability to pay attention.
  
  “It’s really critical to prevent these exposures in the first place,” said Bruce Lanphear, an international expert on lead toxicology. Lanphear is based at Simon Fraser University and BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia.
  
  “The problem with lead is it gets stored in our bones and stays with us for the rest of our lives,” he said.(1)
  
  In an effort to determine what levels of lead contamination exist in West Dallas today, The Dallas Morning News commissioned a toxicologist to test soils from more than 30 residential yards. The results show lead levels that can cause harm to children — though, in all but two cases, they fall below today’s federal cleanup standards for residential areas.(2)
  
  But those standards are getting a closer look. A landmark report released [in 2012] by the Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention noted that the federal standards for lead in residential soil, as well as in dust and water, are not sufficient to protect health. Much lower levels of lead exposure can cause harm.
  
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is examining whether its lead policies need to change in light of the latest science. It is also trying to ensure sites already cleaned remain safe for residents.
  
  The continuing lead problems in West Dallas should serve as a warning for Frisco, said Jim Schermbeck, an environmental advocate. Schermbeck has spent years fighting for more stringent standards for lead smelters and the subsequent cleanups, first in West Dallas and most recently in Frisco.
  
  “If I was living in Frisco,” he said, “I’d want the best cleanup based on the best science.”
  
  Smelter fallout
  
  Both communities are dealing with the fallout from years of toxic emissions during the smelting process at what are known as secondary lead smelters. These smelters extract lead from used vehicle batteries and other scrap metal.
  
  RSR and Exide came under scrutiny because of their too-high lead emissions, though the air-quality standard prior to the West Dallas smelter’s closure was less stringent than it is today.
  
  All of that lead in the air eventually settled on the ground, where it bound to dirt in people’s yards and dust in their homes.
  
  Another danger came from smelter wastes, such as crushed battery pieces, that were spread throughout neighborhoods where residents had little knowledge about the hazards. In West Dallas, the pieces were used in hundreds of yards and muddy driveways. In Frisco, they were used as a base in road and parking lot construction.
  
  These battery chips often — but not always — signal lead contamination. No records exist on where or when they were dumped. But after all these years, they are still turning up. In the past 18 months, they’ve been found in Frisco on city property and along a creek, as well as in a few West Dallas yards.
  
  Cleanups in West Dallas in the 1980s and ’90s, along with the help of a Superfund designation, removed tons of tainted soil.
  
  But it doesn’t take much lead to contaminate soil. The amounts being measured are too small to be visible. Consider the contents of a packet of artificial sweetener, which equal 1 gram. One-millionth of a gram equals 1 part per million. Lead in soil is measured in parts per million.
  
  Lead occurs naturally in the soil at about 15 to 30 parts per million. The EPA standard for cleanup in soil where children play is 400 parts per million.

For more, see The Burden of Lead: West Dallas deals with contamination decades later.

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(1) See, generally:

• USA Today: Where does lead go? Into bones,
• Mount Sinai (NYC) School of Medicine: Why Measure Lead in Bone?

(2) According to the story:

• The samples in the test commissioned by The News came from soil on the surface. The theory is that the surface is where children are most likely to come in contact with tainted soil.
  
  Schermbeck, director of the environmental group Downwinders at Risk, said higher levels of lead contamination in West Dallas might be found deeper down.
  
  Surface samples don’t take into account the contamination from battery chips and fill that were mixed into the dirt in yards. It also doesn’t take into account any shifting that might push lead contamination deeper.
  
  “There’s still stuff out there that nobody will know about,” Schermbeck said. “It hasn’t been inventoried. It hasn’t been catalogued. It’s not on a list anywhere. It’s out there, waiting to be dug up by a dog in a backyard or be dug up by kids playing in a vacant lot.” Environmental Protection Agency EPA smelter foundry