“Sometime in the near future it probably will be shown that the older urban areas of the United States have been rendered more or less uninhabitable by the millions of tons of poisonous industrial lead residues that have accumulated in cities during the past century.” Clair C. Patterson, National Academy of Sciences (1980)
In order to promote evidenced based decision making, it is suggested that very LARGE (1 km square?) community trials be conducted that measure seasonal atmospheric lead loading following three treatments in urban soil contaminated areas - soil covering, irrigation and control.
Irrigation would have the added benefit of reducing exposure to particulates such as PM2.5 and PM10 and other contaminants that covary with Pb in urban soils such as benzoapyrene, Cu, Zn, Cd, Cr Ni and Hg; however, it is unclear whether irrigation would be cost-effective when compared to soil covering.
The costs associated with soil covering would include the purchase of soil, soil transport, sod/grass seeding, lawn maintenance (watering and mowing) during re-growth, and continued maintenance. The cost associated with irrigation would include installation, future water costs (which could be extracted from ubiquitous municipal water mains) and irrigation system maintenance.
It must be noted that LARGE scale community trials have never been conducted (small scale test results have been equivocal, likely due to resuspension and deposition from the neighborhood and surrounding properties).
Source - SCERP Monograph Series no. 12, The U.S-Mexican Border Environment:
Integrated Approach to Defining Particulate Matter Issues in the Paso del Norte
Region.
