ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Jefferson County has been dealing with lead contamination in its county
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has been supplying around 50 Jefferson County households bottled water due to the contamination.
Greg Bach, EPA Remedial Project Manager for Region 7, which houses Jefferson County, joined 'The Show' Tuesday to discuss the levels of lead in the water in the county.
According to Bach, Jefferson County is located an area called 'The Old Lead Belt'.
"Missouri has been a world leading producer of lead for most of its history." Bach explained, Most folks don't realize that."
Bach says that lead contamination in the county has been growing and growing for years.
"In 2004, (The EPA) started doing some initial investigations on lead mining sites in the southwest portion of Jefferson County," Bach said, "We started seeing some wide impacts of lead contamination."
Bach says the EPA started to take action on dealing with the lead contamination in 2007, with the bureau initially telling property owners to remove lead contaminated soils from contaminated yards and providing water to residences.
Bach says that while the primary focus of the lead contamination is taking place in the southern and western areas of Jefferson County. Northeast areas in the county like Arnold aren't seeing as significant impacts of lead contamination like the southern parts of the county.
"Most of the lead mining sites occured in the south and the west," Bach said, "But we are looking at homes throughout the county, including in Arnold."