Get the Lead Out: A Community-Driven Approach to Characterize Urban Soil Lead Levels near a Battery Smelter

Get The Lead Out Study is a community-academic research collaboration with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, aimed at building community resilience to systematically address legacy Pb contamination. We sought to characterize soil Pb in residential yards that received a state-funded cleanup and in neighborhoods adjacent to the prescribed cleanup to address community concerns regarding potential gaps in the remediation approach. We collected 1128 samples from 373 properties, of which ∼40% were cleaned by the state. Seven in ten homes that received a soil cleanup through the state program still had at least one soil Pb sample ≥ 80 ppm (CA residential soil threshold), and 44% of homes had at least one sample >200 ppm (cleanup eligibility level). Among samples collected in adjacent neighborhoods outside the soil cleanup boundary, 70% of samples exceeded 200 ppm. Homes located closer to the facility had statistically significantly higher lead levels than those furthest away. Our findings generated data responsive to community questions and identified continued potential lead hazards. Results were sent to participants and shared at a community forum. Our community-driven research prompted renewed discussion with state agencies to provide recommendations to revise cleanup protocols, expand blood lead testing, and resample cleaned homes.