To see the toxic legacy of lead mining in the US and understand the complicated task of cleaning it up, all one has to do is look at Richard Rankin’s backyard in Missouri.
The septic system of his home in Fenton was filled in more than 20 years ago with lead-contaminated soil from a site near a smelter, later threatening the son he adopted in 2014. His son, who was repeatedly tested for elevated lead levels in his blood, couldn’t play in the backyard and Rankin couldn’t sell the home until it was cleaned up.
But the Environmental Protection Agency didn’t start work to remove the lead until 2019. The EPA’s contractors botched the soil remediation and septic system replacement, forcing Rankin and his family to move to a temporary home in 2022. It was only last summer that the Rankins were able to return.
Once you’re notified of high lead levels, “you’re stuck,” said Rankin, who works in construction. “I am now obligated to disclose that if I try to sell my home.” For now, he’s relieved that he can host his large family when they visit, “because the house is wonderful, not because of what the EPA did.”
Rankin’s home is one of more than 8,400 residential properties in southeastern Missouri, some built atop mine waste, that have undergone EPA lead remediation. The agency has spent $127 million since 2020 on remediating mine waste and removing lead-contaminated soil from yards in the Superfund sites in southeast Missouri’s