By Leigh Jones
The Daily News

Published February 13, 2008

GALVESTON — A task force is mulling initiatives that would eventually make the island a lead-safe community, if elected officials are willing to lend their support.

The most controversial suggestion made Tuesday during the group’s second meeting would require all people requesting city water service to provide proof that their residences were certified lead safe.

The group also heard recommendations for testing all homes occupied by economically disadvantaged children, an attempt to target those most affected by the environmental toxin.

All of the initiatives have the same barrier to success — money and manpower.

But the committee is narrowing a list of resources that could help solve a problem that has plagued the island for 15 years.

Sterling Patrick, director of the city’s grants and housing department, told the committee members he would work with them to come up with a strategy for applying for a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant that could bring in as much as $3 million before the end of the year. The group would need to come up with a 10 percent local match if it received the funds.

Jonathan Ward, director the University of Texas Medical Branch’s division of environmental toxicology, said the group had access to some grant money through the National Institutes of Health that could help fund the work.

Barbara Crews, executive director of the Kempner Fund, encouraged the group to apply by March 15 for money tentatively earmarked for lead initiatives.

Ronnie Schultz, director of environmental health programs for the Galveston County Health District, wants to use some of the money to test more homes for lead contamination.

Schultz and his team currently only test a house if a child living there has a blood lead level greater than 20 micrograms. On average, they test between six and 12 houses a year.

Schultz would like to test about 500 homes a year, those occupied by the economically disadvantaged children who enroll in the local school. He estimated it would cost about $213,500 a year and take two additional staff members.

Schultz’s team would be especially busy if city leaders agreed to make lead safe certification mandatory. But not all committee members agreed such a drastic measure would be good for the island.

Sharon Petronella, a pediatrician at the medical branch, said she feared it would discourage people from buying homes in Galveston, especially since experts think almost all of the island’s soil contains some level of lead. Contaminated soil can be covered with grass or a layer of clean soil, but heavy rain or flooding can bring the toxin back to the surface.

Local officials first learned about the island’s lead contamination in the early 1990s. A report released by Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine late last year showed that 20 percent of Galveston children tested still had elevated blood lead levels.

The toxin causes permanent brain damage in young children and has been linked to learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders.

Galveston’s lead contamination was caused mostly by lead-based paint. Two-thirds of the island’s housing stock was built before 1978, when the federal government banned lead in residential paint.

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For More Information Contact:
Kurt Koopmann
Public Information Officer
Galveston County Health District
409-938-2211 or 409-392-0007
kkoopman@gchd.org