EPA to brief Indianapolis residents on lead cleanup project

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A federal agency that's preparing to clean up lead-tainted soil around dozens of Indianapolis homes will brief residents on the project next week.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans a Thursday meeting at the Oasis of Hope Baptist Church to outline its estimated $5 million cleanup of up to 100 properties in the historic Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood.

EPA plans to begin removing in late September about two feet of lead-contaminated soil from residential yards and haul it to a licensed facility.

The homes' yards were contaminated by lead-smelting operations at a former American Lead site that opened in the late 1800s. More than 220 other tainted properties in the same neighborhood were cleaned up in 2005 by National Lead Industries, which performed lead-smelting at the same site until 1965.