Town Evicts Residents for Cleanup of Lead
Hundreds of residents will be moved out of Herculaneum while crews clean up homes and yards contaminated by a lead smelter that has operated since the 1890s, the Environmental Protection Agency said.
The town of some 2,800 people is the site of the Doe Run Co.’s lead smelter, the nation’s largest. Tests over the years have found often dangerous levels of lead in soil, on streets, inside houses, in schools and elsewhere in Herculaneum, 30 miles south of St. Louis.
About 100 households will be affected, said EPA spokeswoman Hattie Thomas.
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