Reporter:

Omaha, Nebraska, is home to a led Superfund site spanning 27 square miles across more than 40,000 properties throughout North and South Omaha. According to the CDC, lead exposure poses health risks, especially for children. They can be exposed by touching, swallowing or even breathing in lead or lead dust. Historian and previous North Omaha resident, Adam Fletcher, says there are many risks for exposure.

Adam Fletcher:

"Any kid who grew up in these houses has opportunities for exposure, you know, it's the story of the paint chip. It's the story of drinking water from the pipes. It's a story of playing in the dirt. It's the story of playing on the slides at the park, of climbing the trees and the layer on the leaves and all of this exposure. And it's not just the olden days. There's a reason why the federal government and then the City of Omaha were scraping the lawns of hundreds of houses in order to get the lead out."

 

Reporter:

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, over 14,000 residential properties qualified for soil cleanup in Omaha. These properties had surface soil levels that exceeded the residential limit of 400 parts per million. Holly Israel was a homeowner at one of these properties and says it was majorly concerning to learn her soil was contaminated, as she had four young children at the time.

 

Holly Israel:

"My concern was really that there are long term effects that they could be suffering from something that I didn't even know was an issue when I first got the home."

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Reporter:

From 1990 to 2015, data from the EPA shows a decrease in blood lead levels in children in Douglas County, going from 36% of children above the level of concern of ten micrograms per deciliter in 1990 to less than 2%, having levels above five micrograms per deciliter. Fletcher says there were over 100 companies who contributed to the overall pollution in Omaha throughout the years.

 

Adam Fletcher:

"The biggest offender, of course, was ASARCO, the American Smelting and Refining Company. And when the EPA Superfund site was finally declared that money went to the EPA and to the city of Omaha, not to the individual people who were toxified by the lead poisoning."

 

Reporter:
In 2023, the soil at five elementary schools in North and South Omaha tested positive for lead contamination.