Superfund is a huge federal program with growing costs which in a decade might rival those of social security and defense. It is extremely complex, involving cleanups of scores of chemicals at thousands of sites. This book tells the story of one aspect of Superfund—its lead-in-soil cleanups.

Like old generals who always want to fight the last war, EPA regulators are continuing to fight a war against a lead poisoning problem that has already been won. By 1990, average blood-lead levels in the bodies of Americans — young, old, rich, poor, black, and white—had fallen dramatically from 13 micrograms per deciliter in the late 1970s, to about 3 micrograms. In that year, less than 0.2 percent of the population had blood-leads in excess of 30 micrograms, compared to 1.9 percent in the late 1970s, and just 1.1 percent had 15 micrograms, compared to 38 percent in the late 1970s. The victory over lead poisoning had nothing to do with removing lead from soil, the strategy EPA is obsessed with currently.

Read PDF