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PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT

VICKER'S WAREHOUSE SITE
ANDERSON, MADISON COUNTY, INDIANA


CONCLUSIONS

  1. All contaminated soils that posed a threat to human health have been remediated. Therefore, the site currently poses no public health hazard. Before remediation, lead concentrations above levels of concern were in soils at the warehouse site and at the dump site. The surface soil lead concentrations detected at the warehouse site were as high as 136,000 ppm. Lead levels at the dump site were as high as 4,100 ppm. Because people could have come into contact with that contamination, the site historically posed a public health hazard. Now levels are below those of health concern.

  2. Based on recent sampling results, lead-contaminated materials do not appear to have migrated from the dump site into the White River; however, lead may have previously contaminated the White River.

  3. If lead-contaminated materials migrated in the past to the river, there is potential for lead contamination of sediments and biota. Data are not available on fish tissue samples from this section of the White River, but samples from a main part of the river did not contain lead at elevated levels.

  4. To date, none of the residents in the community have taken advantage of the free lead screening offered by the county.

RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. Assess the potential for past impact on the White River. ISDH understands that new data are now available and will obtain that data from IDEM for evaluation.

  2. Evaluate future data for any public health implications. ISDH will review additional data as they become available.

  3. Children in the area should have their blood lead levels checked to determine if any exposure to lead is presently occurring. ISDH will work closely with the county health department to include this community as a future target area for lead screening.

PUBLIC HEALTH ACTION PLAN

ISDH and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry are committed to providing health follow-up as needed at hazardous waste sites. To date, ISDH, with EPA, provided exposure reduction and other health information to community members at this site (completed April 1997). Although any past exposure that may have occurred to community members may be difficult to assess at this time, parents are encouraged to have their children tested for blood lead levels to determine if children are currently exposed to lead. ISDH will assist the local health department with blood lead screening and data interpretation as needed. ISDH will also look at any new environmental data to determine if the site may be the source of any current exposure.


PREPARERS OF REPORT

Bill Letson
Environmental Scientist
Environmental Epidemiology Section

Dollis Wright
Environmental Epidemiologist
Environmental Epidemiology Section


REFERENCES

  1. Indiana Department of Environmental Management Request for Health Consultation, October 1994.

  2. Indiana State Department of Health memorandum to IDEM project manager, November 1994.

  3. Indiana State Department of Health memorandum to File, Site Visit to the Vicker's Warehouse, August 1996.

  4. Site Assessment Report for Vicker's Warehouse, Madison County, Indiana, April 1995.

  5. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Action Memorandum-Determination of threat to the Public Health and the Environment at the Vicker's Warehouse Site, Anderson, Madison County, Indiana, February 1996.

  6. ENTACT, Progress Report Number One, for the Vicker's Warehouse Site, Anderson, Indiana, July 1996.

  7. ENTACT, Phase I Report for the Vicker's Warehouse Site, Anderson, Indiana, August 1996.

  8. U.S. Geologic Survey, Hydrogeologic Atlas of Aquifers in Indiana, Water-Resources Investigations Report 92-4142, 1994.

  9. ISDH, 1997 Indiana Fish Consumption Advisory, February 1997.

  10. Telephone conversation with Jim Stahl, IDEM Biological Studies Section, February 1997.

  11. U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 data.

  12. US Public Health Service, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Toxicological Profile for Lead, April 1993.

  13. US Public Health Service, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, The Nature and Extent of lead Poisoning in Children in the United States: A Report to Congress, July 1988.

  14. Standard Default Exposure Factors. Risk Assessment Guidelines and Standards Vol. I Supplemental Guidance. March 1991

  15. Risk Based Standards for Arsenic, Lead and Cadmium in Urban Soils. Chaney RL, Ryan JA, 1992

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