Get your riding in! EPA revisits lead in park where riders kick up dust By Ken Leiser ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Monday, Aug. 27 2007
PARK HILLS, MO. — Kevin Ferguson watched his 6-year-old son, Taylor, as the boy
drove a kid-size all-terrain vehicle off the sandy flats of St. Joe State Park.
"You got muddy already, huh?" Dad asked as the boy came to a stop on an
overcast Saturday afternoon.
"Yeah."
"Did you do doughnuts?"
"I did," Taylor said. "One time."
The flats he rode on used to be part of an active lead mining and milling
operation. But even though lead has proven to be especially harmful to young
children, Ferguson, of Pacific, said it was not a major concern.
"I've never heard of anybody filing a claim on it," he said. "We all grew up
with lead-based paint in our houses, our cribs and all that, and we're still
here."
Thousands of people now ride, hike and camp on this former lead mining site,
about 55 miles south of St. Louis. But nearly three decades after it was
converted into a recreational park, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
has raised new questions about letting the public play in the mine's gritty
leftovers.
Last week, the EPA urged the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to move
off-road vehicle riding away from the flats during the next several years and
to better warn park visitors of the threat of lead mine waste, which makes up
about 1,000 of the park's 8,200 acres.
"We see the continued use of the park for (off-road vehicle) riding and
recreation in the mine tailings as inconsistent with EPA's approach to reducing
lead exposure in St. Francois County," said Bruce Morrison, with the agency's
Superfund Division in Kansas City.
Soil and dust sampling in 2002 found lead levels as high as 4,638 parts per
million in the beach area where children play and swim, and up to 1,563 parts
per million in the riding area, according to government reports.
Both are above levels that would trigger an EPA cleanup if they were found to
be that high in a residential yard.
Lead-bearing sand can be tracked out of the park on tires, work its way into
clothing or be ingested, federal health officials said. It also can be washed
or blown out of the park into nearby communities.
A 1997 study by state and federal health agencies found 17 percent of the
children living in this part of St. Francois County had lead poisoning, though
the figure has dropped in recent years.
Federal regulators say they don't want to close the park, but Ferguson and
other ATV enthusiasts aren't so sure.
The risks, they say, don't outweigh the benefits of keeping the popular sand
flats open.
"They just want to shut down every place somebody can go ride," Ferguson said.
"We pay to come down here. The kids can ride, have a good time. They're not on
the streets doing something illegal or dangerous."
800,000 VISITORS
State parks officials want to keep the sand flats open to off-road vehicles,
mostly ATVs and dirt bikes. Hundreds of riders descend on the park most
nonwinter weekends to ride on the flats, or the forested upland trails.
The park drew more than 800,000 visitors last year. ATV and dirt bike riders
have to pay for a $3 daily permit. In 2006, about 55,000 permits were sold.
Doyle Childers, director of the Department of Natural Resources, said that if
lead exposure at the park is "minuscule" compared with what some children face
in their homes, it may not make sense to curtail a popular activity.
"We are hopeful that as we look at it, we will find out that yes, there are
common-sense efforts to make sure the park is safe," Childers said.
State and U.S. EPA officials are expected to meet in October. The EPA will have
final say on how the mine waste is cleaned up.
State officials prefer to create a trail network in the riding area, seed and
fertilize some of the areas, and cover other spots with graded rock.
But EPA officials said the plan lacks sufficient detail to evaluate how it
would prevent exposure to mine waste and protect people.
The state and the Maryland Heights-based Doe Run Co., successor to St. Joe Lead
Co., are considered potentially responsible in cleaning up the waste.
Mining in the region began during the 1700s and ultimately grew to become one
of the most prolific sources of lead in the world. St. Joe Minerals Corp.
donated the land to the state in the 1970s after closing its last mine.
The state converted the site into a park in the late 1970s.
STATE CHANGES
Missouri parks officials say they have taken some steps to deal with the lead
issue at St. Joe. They have removed tailings from a section of the Pim Lake
beach and replaced them with traditional sand. In April, the park opened a wash
station to rinse mine tailings off ATVs and dirt bikes. And literature about
the effects of lead is available inside park offices.
John Carter, manager of historic properties at Doe Run, said the company will
work closely with the state in dealing with the mine waste at St. Joe Park.
Jim Yancey, an environmental specialist with the Division of State Parks, said
a 2003 study at St. Joe Park found human health risks to be within "acceptable"
limits for recreational users.
"At least the information we have right now, that we're acting on today, is
that recreational exposure does not present undue risk to recreational users,"
Yancey said.
But federal regulators are worried not only about park users, but also about
children living in the old mining districts who will visit St. Joe Park and
increase their exposure to lead.
Morrison also said some of the measures to inform park visitors about lead
exposure are "inadequate." For instance, signs declaring some of the riding
surface and public beaches as "mine tailings areas" don't mention lead, he
said.
Park visitors should be handed a brochure at the off-road vehicle check-in
office and at the nearby mining museum, he said.
Tom Kruzen, a Sierra Club volunteer and longtime critic of the lead industry,
said the old mine and mill should never have opened as a state park, and the
questions being posed by the EPA are long overdue.
"It's toxic mining waste," Kruzen said.
Some park visitors appear to have weighed the risk.
At Monsanto Lake, Jerry and Carol Ladymon of Farmington kept a close eye on
their granddaughters, ages 5 and 8, who were playing on the beach. They have
told the two girls not to put anything in their mouths and to wash off their
hands.
"Yeah, it's a concern," Carol Ladymon said. "The lead, once it gets in your
system, it's there. It never leaves."
Melissa Schneider of Pacific agrees that more information should be offered to
park visitors. But Schneider, who was at the park this past weekend with her
husband, Darryl, and two sons, ages 5 and 10, said she doesn't harbor major
concerns about lead levels at the park.
"I'm worried more about my toys nowadays," Schneider said. "This is at least
Mother Earth. To me, it's probably the lead that came from the mines that came
from the earth. And to me, that is different than lead that's in the paint that
is being processed on my toys."
