Lead Monitoring in the Pilsen Neighborhood: Fact Sheet

              Lead Monitoring in the Pilsen Neighborhood
Fact Sheet
April 2011
In January 2010, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) placed a monitor on the
roof of Manuel Perez Jr. Elementary School to sample ambient air concentrations of lead in the area.
The monitor was located there because of the Illinois EPA's knowledge of lead emissions from local
sources, concern about the proximity of emissions sources to residents and schools, and expressed
community concern.
Air samples at the Perez monitor were collected once every six days
and typically showed lead levels well under the new, more protective
National Ambient Air Quality Standard. However, periodically there were
elevated lead readings at the monitor (elevated in 11 of the
approximately 60 samples taken in 2010).
The National Ambient Air Quality Standard is based on an average of
three months of readings. Although most of the readings in 2010 were
well below the standard, four elevated samples between November
2010 and January 2011 caused the three-month average to be greater
than the National Ambient Air Quality Standard.
The Illinois EPA is investigating to
determine why the elevated lead events
occurred. This investigation includes:
adding a second monitor in the area, at
Benito Juarez Community Academy;
increasing the frequency of sample
collection from every six days to every
three days at the Perez and Juarez
monitors; and conducting investigations
of numerous sources in the area,
including H. Kramer, a local brass and
bronze smelter.
The first results from the new ambient monitor indicate that H. Kramer
is contributing to the elevated ambient air lead levels.
Based on this new data, the Illinois EPA has requested that the Illinois
Attorney General initiate legal action against H. Kramer relative to its
contribution to a violation of the lead National Ambient Air Quality Standard.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency is working with the Illinois EPA to investigate the
cause of the elevated lead readings and has also initiated enforcement action against H. Kramer.
Lead concentrations in the
ambient air have been
declining steadily for the
past 15 years.
􀁺􇩌 Lead in gasoline was
banned in 1996.
􀁺􇩍 Manufacturing and
industrial facilities
have had to meet
tougher regulatory
requirements.
Lead concentrations in the
air in Illinois have
decreased by 42 percent
over the last 10 years and
lead emissions in Cook
County are at the lowest
levels since the
government began
keeping records on lead
emissions.
In January 2009, the
USEPA's standard for lead
in the ambient air
(National Ambient Air
Quality Standard) was
reduced from 1.5 μg/m3
(micrograms per cubic
meter) to 0.15 μg/m3
averaged over three
months.
􀁺􇩒 Roughly a tenfold
decrease
􀁺􇩉 Illinois EPA
established new air
monitors around the
state.
Fact Sheet #1 - Lead Monitoring in the Pilsen Neighborhood Page 1 of 5
http://www.epa.state.il.us/community-relations/fact-sheets/pilsen-neighborhood-lead/fact-s... 5/24/2012