Study suggests link between lead and violent crime

By: Nathan Lamb

Once a staple of gasoline and paint, lead has long been recognized as a toxic contaminant, and a new study is suggesting it could have a direct relation to violent crime trends over the past 60 years.

Compiled by lead expert Dr. Howard Mielke of Tulane University, the study was featured in a recent news report by WWLTV of New Orleans.

Lead emissions from automobiles were central to the study, which evaluated more than 10,000 soil samples from around the city of New Orleans.

The study showed that areas with higher levels of lead exposure were typically the higher crime areas, adding it's likely a significant factor behind criminal tendencies.

Mielke said the problem is that automobiles brought literally tons of lead into American cities over the latter half of the 20th century. He calculated that each gallon of leaded gas released one gram of lead into the environment and, since lead is a persistent contaminant, it generally stays in place until removed.

Lead fumes rising out of contaminated soil are particularly dangerous for children, because it can impede brain development and impulse control. The study suggested a 20-year time lag between increased emissions and rising crime rates.

Lead was first used as a gasoline additive in the 1950s and was banned in 1996.

Published in August of 2012, Dr. Mielke's study tracked emissions and violence in six major cities from 1950 to 1985.

According to the study abstract, fluctuation of lead emissions appeared to explain 90 percent of the aggravated assault variations. All else being equal, the study had each 1 percent increase in emissions tonnage consistently resulting in a .46 percent increase in the aggravated assault rate a generation later.

The study also suggested increased prevention of childhood lead exposure could result in lower crime rates in the future.

In the meantime, Mielke suggested that lead contamination should be more of a national issue, noting there’s a Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, but no Clean Soil Act.

Fuel Contamination Suspected Near Former Garage

By: Nathan Lamb


Environmental officials are investigating whether fuel contaminants have spread from a defunct service garage to neighboring residential properties in the city of Rockland, Maine.

According to an article in the Bangor Daily News, the garage closed in 2006, and soil contamination from fuel leaks was discovered a couple of years later, when the underground gasoline tanks were removed.
The company commissioned tests in 2009, which indicated that the underground leak had spread to a neighboring parcel that’s home to an apartment building. Contaminants were also found near the property line of another parcel with a single-family home.

A Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) spokesperson credited the company with carrying out necessary remediation by removing contaminated soil from the garage site, but termed testing for the neighboring parcels inadequate.

A bankruptcy filing from the company had put the investigation on hold, but the Maine DEP is looking to resolve the uncertainty by underwriting $10,000 to $20,000 of air, soil and groundwater testing with funds from a state gasoline tax.

The neighborhood receives drinking water through a regional company, but the Maine DEP considers petroleum contamination a health hazard and regulates cleanups to minimize the risk to public health.

The garage building is currently vacant, and the DEP spokesperson said removal of the structure would require additional cleanup to protect the construction workers.

Maine Gas Spill Threats Show Signs of Diminishing

By: Duane Craig

Five thousand gallons of gasoline spilled on Maine’s Route 11 in 2011. As of the end of July 2012, the remediation effort has been scaled back, according to this report.

The accident happened when a tanker truck carrying more than 8,000 gallons of gasoline rolled over near Wallagrass and spilled about 5,000 gallons. As of mid-July 2012, 2,300 gallons of gasoline had been removed and because of diminishing returns from the southern vapor extraction system, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection shut it down July 12. The northern extraction system had previously been turned off, but weather conditions prompted the department to turn it back on.

The DEP is leaving monitoring wells in place for at least another year. One local well owner had elevated levels of contaminants associated with gasoline and the well has been fitted with a carbon filtration system. Still, the DEP may require new drinking water wells to be drilled.

There’s more information from the DEP about this accident here.

Old or Abandoned Wells Are Key Sources of TX Water Contamination

September 5, 2010 - New oil and gas drilling is probably the most visible activity people associate with threats to groundwater in Texas. But it's not usually the source of known contamination, according to state records.

Instead, old or abandoned oil and gas wells, petroleum storage facilities and even existing water wells are most frequently identified as problems.

A Texas Groundwater Protection Committee report, presented to the Legislature last year, said there were 4,729 active groundwater contamination cases documented or under enforcement in 2008.

Of those, 395, or 8.4 percent, were "attributed to oil and gas exploration and production activities," but "no producing oil and gas wells" were listed as groundwater-contamination sources, Texas Railroad Commission spokeswoman Ramona Nye said. The state has more than 281,000 oil and gas wells, Nye said.

Most contamination attributed to oil and gas exploration and production activities resulted from releases from sources such as pipelines and storage tanks, she said.

Cary Betz, chairman of the groundwater protection committee and a groundwater specialist with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said the biggest source of groundwater contamination is leaking underground gasoline storage tanks at old service stations. But the number of those tanks has dropped significantly, to 1,214 in 2009, he said.

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Tainted Soil Costly For Everett, WA District

May 26, 2009- The Everett School District likely will have to pay more than $450,000 to haul contaminated soil from land that could someday be home to a new administration building.

Records from the state Department of Ecology show soil and groundwater contamination from diesel and gasoline on the site. The district in 1986 bought the property, which once housed gas stations and a fuel distribution company. The contamination was reported to the state in December.

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Contaminants Plague Fairbanks, AK Home

April 28, 2009- Debra Jorgensen said she started sensing something was wrong at her Hamilton Acres home six years ago. People were getting sick from no apparent cause. About the same time — months after a major earthquake hit Fairbanks and Interior Alaska — people started smelling an unusual, sweet smell in the basement.

Environmental soil tests at the property itself, however, wound up detecting concentrations a handful of toxins including chloroform and trimethylbenzene — a common gasoline additive.

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More pollution found at Willow Street park site in Connecticut

November 19, 2008 - The Willow Street Park project has more contamination below the surface than environmental experts had predicted. It sits in immense mountains just off the side of what will be the Willow Street park neighborhood children have been waiting for.

Officials say that LTC Construction and CMG Environmental discovered gasoline below the remnants of what was once the Willow Street public housing project.

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