JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. — The EPA held a meeting in Jefferson County where they asked for public input on their plan to take care of lead-contaminated wells.
The meeting Tuesday with the EPA focused on personal wells contaminated with lead at homes in Jefferson County.
The proposed remediation plan outlines their desire to do more testing of wells at people's homes for lead so they can provide a filtration system for free.
The EPA said the Ozark Aquifer has uneven contamination, which is where the water comes from that comes out of these wells.
Hundreds of years ago Jefferson County miners weren’t setting up towns in a rush for gold.
“The City of Old Mines in adjacent Washington County just had their 300th anniversary. And that town was founded because of lead mining,” EPA Project Manager Steve Sturgess said.
What you don’t see in between beautiful trees and rivers are the remnants of more than 160 closed lead mines that are now hurting the people who live there.
“The unfortunate truth is that the lead is still in the soil, it's still in the sediment, is still in the groundwater, and it's not going anywhere. So we are literally trying to remove it wherever we find it,” Sturgess said.
The EPA has been working in Jefferson County for 15 years the entire county is a Superfund site along with Washington, Madison and St. Francois counties.
“We wish we could clean up the groundwater, but right now what we're instead doing is making sure people have safe drinking water,” Sturgess said.
Most of the people affected now have personal wells in rural areas in the southwestern part of the county. The temporary solution from the EPA was bottled water but they want to put in a permanent solution.
“The filtration unit itself is about 12-inches long, by about four inches wide. It's very small. It fits easily under a person's kitchen sink. We can also install them in bathrooms throughout the house if it's needed for young children,” Sturgess said.
Right now, only 53 homes in Jefferson County are receiving bottled water even though more are contaminated.
They are estimating 423 wells in Jefferson County are contaminated but need cooperation from the public to test and accept remedial solutions.
They not only want to test the soil and water at people’s homes, but they also want to test their blood as lead poisoning can be very harmful for children.
“The thing with lead poisoning, you don't know your child has it, so they could be ingesting it. And the only way to know is to get their lead level checked. Over time, it causes learning disabilities, behavioral issues, and neurological damage. There have been levels so high in other places, the kid had to be hospitalized,” Jefferson County Health Department Blood Lead Coordinator Penelope Wessels said.
The Jefferson County Health Department provides free blood lead testing for kids 0-7.
You can find more information on family safety here.
Click here to learn more about the plan and provide feedback on the proposed solution.
Public comment on the proposed plan closes July 20.