Study shows small percentage of people affected by contaminants in Pueblo neighborhood

A study from two federal government agencies show a small percentage of people in the Eilers neighborhood in Pueblo had high traces of lead in their bodies.

The area was made into an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site last year because the agency found high traces of lead and arsenic in the area from a smelter site.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry conducted the study. They say of the 135 people they tested for lead and arsenic, six kids had high traces of lead in their bodies. No one tested had arsenic.

The groups tested people who live within a half mile of the smelter site. They think the kids got the lead in their bodies from playing in a slag pile of arsenic, lead and soil at the smelter site.

Despite the low number of people who have high traces of lead in their bodies, the government groups said the Eilers area still needs to cleaned up.

“The risk is still there, the slag pile is present and that needs to be evaluated and the determination made on how best to reduce the risk to the community as a whole,” ATSDR Medical Officer Bruce Tierney said.

Eilers resident Carol Galich said the EPA rushed into making the neighborhood a Superfund site.

“I don’t think that’s an adequate assessment for the problem that they are saying it came from,” she said.

The study took two years to complete and it came at the request of the Eilers community.