EPA collecting soil at properties within Superfund area

protection agency is sampling soil near an old smelter in pueblo. the agency fod high levels of lead and arsenic in the eilers and besemer neighborhoods. that’s on the southside of pueblo… it’s west of santa fe avenue… east of i-25… and south of the arkansas river. and that’s where we find krdo newschannel 13’s michelle san miguel. michelle, the e-p-a says it’s testing soil right now as part of a pilot phase. the e-p-a is sampling soil at 12 homes this month to test equipment and make sure it’s ready to begin largescale testing this summer. today, the epa was at this home on the 1100 block of eilers street … looking for high levels of lead and arsenic in the soil. this frontyard is now a science experiment of sorts. homeowners albert and carol galich look on as the epa drills for traces of toxic metals. 2:05…i’m kind of hoping that they don’t find any contamination. a former smelter that operated near here more than 100 years ago left behind elevated levels of arsenic and lead. Nat pop of Albert talking to neighbor albert galich doesn’t think this soil testing will turn up any alarming results — but he wants to be safe. 2:21… i grew up in this neighborhood and the slag pile they’re talking about — i played on that. Along with the rest of the neighborhood kids. the galich’s home is one of 19 hundred within the superfund area. 3:11 at this time i don’t know if all 1900 of those homes will need to be sampled. As we start getting more data, we’ll be able to refine where we’re seeing contamination, if we’re seeing contamination related to the former smelter. the epa says it will take a few months to get the results from the soil sampling. once it does, the homeowners will receive a letter with the results. 2:44 it’s kind of like a bad label to have, saying your properties contaminated. galich just wants it out in the open. and if it is contaminated, clean it up. this testing is just the beginning. the epa says it will take years to test all of the homes in the superfund area — but does’t have an exact timeframe of when it will be done. in pueblo, michelle san miguel. krdo. nc13. new developments