ToxinsExtreme weather exposes the toxic legacy of an industrial past

Published 30 May 2014

The increase in the number and intensity of extreme weather events in the United States carries with it yet another, more insidious danger: it forces to the surface toxic lead from long-shuttered smelters. Lead smelters had mostly closed down in the United States by the 1980s, but they left behind millions of tons of toxic waste. One example: In 2011, Joplin, Missouri suffered a devastating tornado which killed 158 people and flattened much of the city. Decades of lead processing in the Joplin area had created about 150 million tons of toxic wastes, with about 9 million tons still remaining after a federal Superfund cleanup. The 2011 tornado forced some of the buried lead to the surface, forcing Joplin to spend $3.5 million so far on lead clean up. The city now requires builders to test for lead, and clean up any traces, before beginning construction.

A recent study has found that 30 percent of former lead smelting plants in the United States are located in areas at high risk for natural disasters, leading to the increased danger of an exposed site.

As Scientific American reports, recent tornado events, such as the 2011 one which killed 158 people in Joplin, Missouri, are kicking up previously buried smelting and mine sites. “Trees were uprooted, houses were leveled, everything underground was now on the surface,” said Leslie Heitkamp, Joplin’s lead inspector and remediation coordinator.

This includes more than 600 lead smelters which operated between the 1930s and 1960s. Even small levels of lead “reduce children’s IQs and are linked to attention and behavioral disorders,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This uprooting effect is posing a serious threat to areas where an industrial past had previously been forgotten. Lead smelters had mostly closed down in the United States by the 1980s, with the last smelter shuttered just last year, but the methods with which ore is extracted from a blast furnace — emitting many toxic substances along the way — has led to calls for more efficient cleaning and management of former sites.

Even more alarming, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spokesperson George Hull has said that “the agency doesn’t have plans or research specific to the dangers of lead smelters and natural disasters,” highlighting the problem. Additionally, many states more highly at risk for natural disaster events also report a lack of infrastructural preparation. Officials in both California and Pennsylvania have released similar reports to that of the EPA. A US Today investigation concluded that many officials ignore information many sites. Others, like Illinois, have taken matters into their own hands and have “a local emergency planning coordinator who knows where former lead smelters are,” according to Kim Biggs, an Illinois EPA representative.

Jean Brender, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Texas A&M University, told Scientific American , “Before these disasters happen, agencies should look into where the contamination is.”

In the case of the Joplin tornado, the EPA estimated that “decades of lead processing created about 150 million tons of toxic wastes, with about 9 million tons still remaining after a federal Superfund cleanup.”

Heitkamp notes that Joplin had spent $3.5 million to clean up lead in the tornado’s path. The city now requires builders to test for lead, and clean up any traces, before beginning construction.