Portions of Frisco Texas Overdose on Lead Contamination

By: Duane Craig

Frisco, Texas sits just a little north of Dallas and a little south of the Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for lead in the environment. That’s partly because a battery recycling operation has been there since the early 1970s, and because the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for lead has been reduced from 1.5 to .15 micrograms per cubic meter.

Texas Lead Contamination

The area surrounding Exide Technologies, a primary lead recycler with operations across the country, and a portion of Collin County were listed as an EPA non-attainment area. Those areas “have been determined, based on a state recommendation and/or on the technical analysis to have a violation of the 2008 Lead National Ambient Air Quality Standard during the most recent three consecutive years of quality-assured, certified air quality data,” according to this EPA report.

But, the area was a non-attainment area also under the old 1978 Lead NAAQS. The air monitors were located on West 5th Street and at 6931 Ash Street. The validity of measurement data from a third monitor is being questioned by the state. The area that includes the non-attainment zone extends from the Dallas North Tollway on the west and Stonebrook Parkway on the east to about two blocks north of Frisco’s Main Street.

Read more here and here.