For greater than a century, a smelting plant in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, spewed lead-laced smoke throughout town. Because the poisonous steel drifted towards the bottom, roughly 400 million kilos of it — almost the load of Chicago’s Willis Tower — settled into the soil and our bodies of numerous Omahans. Since 1999, the U.S. Environmental Safety Company and town of Omaha have spent a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to wash it up.
Flatwater Free Press is partnering with ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative newsroom, to learn how efficient they’ve been and see what questions are nonetheless on the market about one of many largest residential environmental cleanups in America.
Signal as much as have your soil examined for lead by filling out our kind. In case you dwell in one of many affected areas listed beneath, a member of our workforce might come accumulate a soil pattern out of your yard. As soon as it’s examined, we’ll inform you of your outcomes. (Chances are you’ll decide out of receiving the take a look at outcomes if you happen to desire.)
In case you have any questions, please contact Flatwater Free Press reporter Chris Bowling at [email protected] or 402-302-0066, Ext. 5. We invite you to share this manner together with your neighbors and group to allow them to signal as much as have their soil examined for lead, too.
Omaha Lead Superfund Web site Map
This map exhibits the Omaha Lead Superfund Web site. Flatwater Free Press is considering testing properties inside the web site in addition to these in surrounding areas like Bellevue; neighborhoods east of 72nd Road; Carter Lake, Iowa; and Council Bluffs, Iowa. We are going to prioritize gathering soil from inside these neighborhoods.
Click on or faucet the map to enlarge.
