Tests find property in Arco not risky

A health assessment by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Register has found that only one property in the Arco neighborhood -- the yard of a vacant house -- contains any worrisome contamination and that it is unlikely it came from LCP. The six-month study, which included 200 samples of soil, turned up lead in the soil of the house at 935 parts per million, the agency said.

Officials said they would have been concerned with any finding above 400 parts per million.

There were other findings of hazardous substances: polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, mercury and more lead, but all at levels too low to pose any risk, the agency study found.

Of the lead, agency toxicologist David Mellard said, "It's not surprising to find it. It's an old neighborhood built in the 1920s."

That's when most house paint was lead-based and when gasoline had lead added.

Sam Frazier, who lives in a mobile home near LCP, said the sample from his yard came back clean.

"Not bad at all. I feel safe," Frazier said. "They told me I can grow a garden and not be afraid to eat the vegetables."

Willie Rudolph said the fact that the samples taken from her yard tested clean means she will see more of her grandchildren.

Her son in Atlanta, who always lets his children come down and spend a few weeks in the summer, was keeping them home until the results came in, Rudolph explained.

"No lead was found. Good relief," she said.

Children are always a prime concern when lead is found because it can cause neurological problems.

"For children, we don't like to see anything above 400 [parts per million]," said Shea Jones, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's remedial project manager for LCP.

The Glynn County Health Department will test children and perhaps some adults in the neighborhood to determine if they have been exposed, said Gary Hummel, an environmental health specialist for the department.

Children in the neighborhood should be scheduled for blood tests at the county health department clinic.

If those tests find children with elevated lead levels in their blood, Hummel said, he will investigate to determine the source of the lead.

"We hope to get a good response," he said.

Hummel said he also was not surprised that lead was found in a residential area built in the 1920s.

"Any house built prior to 1978 may have lead. Any house built prior to 1960 will have lead," he said.

With the LCP matter resolved, Jones said she will again turn her focus to cleaning up a huge plume of contaminated groundwater beneath the former production buildings at the plant. The plume of caustic water contains mercury and other contaminants and is moving slowly toward the adjacent marsh and tidal creeks.

The former owners of the plant have spent more than $100 million to date removing mercury, PCBs and other hazardous substances from the site since it became a Superfund site in the 1990s.

With the findings in Arco, the owners of the residential property will be able to go forward with investments in what was formerly a factory village for workers at an oil refinery.