Background: The contaminated site was a former Used Lead Acid Battery (ULAB) recovery operation in the port city of Haina near Santo Domingo. The industrial site is bordered on three sides by the residential area known as Paraiso del Dios, a poor neighborhood of about 650 small block or wood framed homes with metal roofs and concrete or dirt floors. The area was the scene of extreme lead poisoning in the 1990s. In 1997, several hundred children were surveyed by a U.S. NGO (Friends of Lead Free Children www.childrenshealthfestival.com). Mean blood lead concentrations were 71 µg/dL (range: 9-234 µg/dL); 28% of the children required immediate treatment; and 5% showed lead levels >79 µg/dL. Residents reported that several children suffered seizures during the factory operational years, and continue to exhibit learning disabilities today.

The factory was closed in 2000 and a repository for furnace slag, discarded battery casings and other waste materials was developed on-site and by constructing a concrete block retaining wall and excavating and filling ravines on the north side of the site. Subsequently, the site was abandoned and was subject to extensive uncontrolled salvage activities. The concrete retaining wall was scavenged, releasing large amounts of buried waste into the community during rain events. The exposed wastes, that were >30% lead, were scavenged and sold as scrap. Highly contaminated materials were recycled from the site and used as building material and fill in the adjacent community.

Children from the surrounding community accessed this site on a daily basis and engaged in play in highly contaminated soils. Most children were barefoot and were tracking soils off-site on their feet and clothes, potentially exposing siblings in their homes. In addition, the site was a de facto latrine and human fecal material is observed throughout presenting biological hazards, as well.

TG International Initiative Activities: TerraGraphics and Blacksmith conducted soil and waste sampling in 2006-07 and the site was named to the top ten most polluted sites list in 2007. Extremely high lead concentrations were noted on the site and adjacent residential lots. Contaminated wastes in the failed repository on the site show concentrations from 30% to 45% lead. Surface soil concentrations ranged from 4,030 to 303,000 mg/kg. TerraGraphics developed a cleanup plan recommending institution of a blood lead monitoring and follow up program, relocation of all high level wastes to an off-site repository, development of an on-site repository for the low-level and mid-level soil and concrete waste, and to dedicate the property as a public park with appropriate institutional controls to ensure sustainability. The Blacksmith Institute and the University of Santo Domingo instituted a blood lead monitoring program of children living near the site in 2007 and found 80% >10 µg/dl, 24% >40 µg/dl, and 7% >70 µg/dl.

In 2008, the Dominican Republic government commissioned a cleanup in which TerraGraphics provided design and technical assistance. More than 3000 cubic meters of hazardous wastes (10% to 30% lead) was excavated and transported to an off-site repository provided by the site owners. Through a combination of sequenced waste excavation and clean material generation, another 4000 cubic meters of contaminated soils was removed and buried on-site, and a 1 meter deep veneer of clean soil covers the site. The site has been turned in to an "ecological park" that was dedicated with great fanfare in March 2010. The Ministry of Environment introduced the Park as the first step in initiating a cleanup program for the entire country and dedicated an "ecological mural" to the DR environment and "heroes" of the cleanup effort. The cleanup will be extended to the surrounding community in the next few months and finally eliminate this site as a source of lead poisoning that has affected several thousand children over the last four decades.

• Blacksmith Institute
  
• Greencross
  
• Childrens Health Festival
  
• PDF Report on Dominican Republic
  
• Dominican Republic Poster