The EPA Doesn’t Typically Retest Homes in the Country’s Largest Residential Lead Superfund Site. So We Did.

The Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica spent two years testing lead contamination in Omaha, Nebraska—the country's largest residential lead Superfund site—and found that decades-old cleanup hasn't fully addressed the problem. The area was contaminated by a smelter that operated until the nineteen nineties; the EPA then remediated thousands of properties but has rarely retested them since. The journalists tested six hundred twenty yards and found concerning levels persist: forty-one percent of yards contained more than one hundred parts per million of lead, a level the EPA links to elevated blood-lead in children. Within the Superfund site, more than half the yards tested exceeded that level. Notably, even previously remediated properties showed high contamination. ProPublica reports the EPA has said it will investigate and coordinate with Omaha on corrective action.

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