upcoming lead-contaminated soil Superfund cleanup, 350 properties affected encompassing whole neighborhoods
350 properties in an area bounded by Mary Street to the west, Iowa Street to the north, Elliot Street to the east and Division and Illinois streets to the south will excavated and restored down in LEADVILLE beginning in March. The work is being funded through at least $5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The effort represents the second phase of cleanup at the Evansville site. In 2007 - 2008, the Feds cleaned up about 80 properties with lead levels above 1,200 parts per million (EPA’s residential lead cleanup level is 400 ppm). As that effort wrapped up, EPA announced plans for the current project. A third phase of the cleanup encompasses about a dozen neighborhoods in a 4.5-square-mile area north and south of the Lloyd Expressway near downtown Evansville. This expanded area includes about 10,000 properties that will be tested for soil contamination. EPA expects 4,000 may require cleanup. Work in this expanded area will begin in 2011 or 2012.
Several long-closed manufacturing companies used lead, arsenic and other metals in their operations leaving behind the contamination. Evansville was placed on the Superfund National Priorities List in July 2004.
