Valerie Wigglesworth/Staff Writer; Michael Hogue/Staff Artist

Lead in West DallasFor nearly 50 years, a secondary lead smelter operated in West Dallas. It polluted the surrounding neighborhood with dangerously high levels of lead. Cleanups were done in the 1980s and 1990s. But recent soil testing commissioned by The Dallas Morning News shows low levels of lead contamination still exist that can cause health effects.

The plant at Singleton Boulevard and Westmoreland Road opened in the mid-1930s in a mostly industrial area. A post-war building boom in the late 1940s brought homes to the area in droves.

Lead occurs naturally in Texas soil at 15 to 30 ppm

California standard: 80 ppm

The federal /Texas cleanup standard is 400 parts per million

Minnesota standard: 100 ppm

2012 soil testing at 36 West Dallas addresses

400 parts per million is no longer considered a stringent enough standard to protect children from harm. The states of Minnesota and California use a much lower screening standard:

One-third of the addresses tested contained lead in the soil greater than 100 parts per million.

Less than 100 parts per million

More than 100 parts per million

WEST DALLAS

Singleton

West

mo

rela

nd

MargaretHunt

HillBridge

Trinity River

150

104

302

124

192

109

218215

592

458

198

134

Smelter site

The smelter accepted used vehicle batteries for recycling and in the process, the surrounding community became polluted.

Singleton

Smelter site

1,000700

500300

Parts permillion:

Emissions from the smelter’s 300-foot-tall smokestack were a big source of contamination. The contaminants in the air eventually settled on the ground. Properties closest to the smelter had the greatestcontamination. Based on 1982 soil sampling

Workers at the plant would crush the batteries, extract the lead and sell it for reuse.

EXTRACTEDLEAD

BATTERY CHIPS

BATTERIES

Emissions weren’t the only dangers:

Contaminated plastic pieces from crushed batteries along with waste from the plant called slag were dumped throughout the neighborhood. They were also used for years as fill in people’s driveways and yards.

A neighborhood survey in 1992 found battery chips in hundreds of yards.

The cleanupThe first cleanup in the 1980s covered residential areas within a half mile of the plant most affected by air emissions. Another series of cleanups in the 1990s involved a broader area contaminated by battery chips and slag. In 1995, the EPA declared the cleanup as complete.

Singleton

West

mo

rela

nd

Fort Worth

Ave.

Trinity River

Smelter site

To help with cleanup, the EPA declared a 13.6-square-mile area of West Dallas as a Superfund site.

Yards with battery chips, 1992

Yet today, battery chips are still found in yards and harmful levels of lead remain in West Dallas.

30

30

12

WEST DALLAS

How the lead contamination occurred

First cleanup, 1984-85