Enviromental consulting- Eldertree Stoneoak and Brookings

City of Joliet
Environmental Management

Eldertree Stoneoak & Brookings, Inc. was asked to find the source of high blood-lead levels that were discovered in school children in the northeast quarter of the city. Historical research and physical investigation revealed that this portion of the city was built on 4 to 14 feet of lead slag from bullet-making operations durin

g the Civil War and W.W.I. In Granite City, Illinois, and Boulder, Colorado, the removal of 18 inches of contaminated soil in widespread areas proved unsuccessful as underlying lead re-contaminated the surface soils.

We devised a different approach. We created a lead dust management program, which called for city-owned high efficiency vacuums to be used in resident homes without charge, parent/child education programs, mandatory lead dust cleaning in schools, mandatory hand washing after recess, vegetative greening of all open soil areas, and a home cleaning resource center for education and supplies for residential use. Not a single additional case of poisoning has occurred since the implementation of the program.