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American Morning

Missouri Town Angered Over Lead Cleanup

Aired January 29, 2002 - 09:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We haven't seen anything quite like this since Love Canal. That was the town in upstate New York where families were forced out because of widespread industrial pollution. In one Missouri town, it's a lead smelting plant that is being blamed for widespread pollution.

Natalie Pawelski explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four kids stuck inside on a rare warm day in January because playing outside might be hazardous to their health.

(on camera): These are not children who are short on energy.

CAROL MILLER, RESIDENT: Oh no, and this is my life. It's hard on them; they can't go to Grandma's, they can't go to any of their relatives here in Herky because of the lead.

PAWELSKI (voice-over): "Herky" is what the locals call Herculaneum, Missouri. All the playgrounds are closed, and signs warn kids not to play on the streets, because of lead contamination. The EPA says the Doe Run lead smelter has polluted earth, air, and water with lead, and it's asking more than 90 families to move out of their homes while their yard soil is replaced and their houses professionally cleaned.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You guys aren't going to clean any better than I clean. Why don't you take some of this money and do something about this problem?

PAWELSKI: But at a town meeting, it's clear there is not a lot of faith in that plan.

It seems to me that you are working for the lead smelter.

PAWELSKI (on camera): Plans to move families back in to their homes after the lead has been removed don't sit well with some of the neighbors: What good will it do, they ask, if the smelter continues to pollute. Won't their houses and yards just end up being contaminated all over again?

(voice-over): Doe Run says that won't happen, that its smelter continues to cut emissions as the company pays to clean up yards and homes.

BARBARA SHEPARD, DOE RUN LEAD COMPANY: There have been emissions in the past, and what we are now doing is coming into compliance with the national ambient air standard. And so we're now wanting to get the soils and the houses cleaned up.

We did not do anything wrong.

PAWELSKI: In the meantime, Carol Miller worries about elevated lead levels in her home and in her children's blood, and on learning disabilities and health problems she blames on lead.

MILLER: Everything that they say lead can cause we have it in our family.

PAWELSKI: So the Millers are moving into a motel while their topsoil is replaced and their house scrubbed. But they will come back to a street where some neighbors don't yet qualify for cleanup.

MILLER: I guess when we come back, we'll live in a little bubble, and my kids won't know you step on that property, won't walk down the sidewalk.

PAWELSKI: The EPA says wholesale evacuations are not necessary, and the lead company agrees.

SHEPARD: The risks are not that great to be living here. We're remediating the soil, changing the soils, and we're cleaning the houses, and we're also doing the schools and the playgrounds. We are a responsible corporate operation wanting to work with its community, to make things right in Herculaneum.

PAWELSKI: But among the people of this small town, there's a lot of doubt about whether things will ever be right again.

Natalie Pawelski, CNN, Herculaneum, Missouri.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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