"Federal officials vowed Wednesday to conduct an emergency cleanup of a lead-contaminated lot near a Pilsen elementary school, more than six years after authorities first identified the hazards."
"The Tribune reported in November that the lot had not been cleaned up or fenced off even though the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency had cautioned in 2006 that its testing indicated children could inhale or ingest contaminated soil on their way to and from nearby Walsh Elementary School.
A new round of tests conducted later that month for the federal EPA reconfirmed that the half-acre site at 947 W. Cullerton St. is tainted with high levels of brain-damaging lead dust -- pollution left behind by a long-forgotten metals smelter that operated on the property in the 1940s."
Michael Hawthorne reports for the Chicago Tribune February 6, 2013.
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