By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LIBERTY TWP. - Little green flags wave on snow-covered lawns, signaling for environmental workers which homeowners are allowing a second round of testing today for potentially dangerous levels of lead in their yards.

The new testing at Lexington Manor comes after an earlier round found lead concentrations higher than the most stringent federal and state levels for bare soil play areas in five lots of this still-developing subdivision.

Neighbors gathered in one of the spacious two-story homes Friday night to talk about lead hazards.

Filling the kitchen and family room of James and Lisa Tarver's home, residents anxiously listened to Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Ohio health department officials, and discussed the future of a neighborhood filled with houses worth up to $300,000.

ABOUT LEAD EXPOSURE

• Risks of exposure: Breathing workplace air or dust, eating contaminated foods or drinking contaminated water • Health hazards: Lead can damage the nervous system, kidneys and reproductive system. At high levels, it can be deadly.   How to protect your home from lead-tainted soil: • A child's exposure to lead is reduced if there is a protective layer covering the soil. Growing thick grass, placing several inches of tree bark on the ground or covering bare soil with cement all help. • Lead also can get into house dust when pets and shoes track soil in from outside. Brush pets often, outside. Place doormats inside and outside to reduce household dust. Have your children screened for blood lead levels annually between the ages of 6 months and 6 years. • For more information, contact The National Lead Information Center at (800) 424-LEAD (5323) or go to EPA's Web site: www.epa.gov/lead.   Sources: EPA and Ohio State University

In the two-hour private meeting, neighbors, some of whom no longer let their children play in their yards, peppered the officials with questions about the environmental hazards of the lead and ways to best protect their families. Some came out expressing optimism.

"We are very glad the EPA is interested now," said John Forren, 36, after he left the meeting with his wife, Jennifer. "We are still hopeful it can have a positive outcome. In our minds there is a health issue and a property issue. "

Lexington Manor, off Millikin Road, was built on 25 acres that used to hold a clay pigeon skeet shooting range. The range shut down in 1969 and was a cattle farm before home building started about two years ago.

Liberty Township, which grew by 147 percent in the 1990s, now has some 25,000 people and is projected to double again before its growth peaks.

OEPA and state department of health officials say they are not sure what, if any, hazards are in the subdivision. OEPA still is looking into how the lead-tainted soil was mediated and plans to meet again with residents, this time in a public setting, in about 60 days.

"We don't know what the real definition of the problem is yet," said Daniel Chatfield, program administrator for the Ohio Department of Health's division of lead poisoning prevention program.

Like OEPA and health officials, many residents also are wondering about the history of the land, how much risk the lead buried there poses, and what should have been done to prevent their situation.

No law prevents building on former skeet shooting ranges, and OEPA does not regulate them.

But after two Lexington Manor residents contacted OEPA in late December, the agency began looking into whether lead from shot that fell to the ground at Lexington Manor has turned into a contamination problem - and if the developer properly mediated the lead-tainted soil.

Soil treated, but not removed

Before any homes were built, Lexington Manor's developer buried the lead-impacted soils and treated it with lime to render it nonhazardous, according to an environmental firm that conducted testing on the land in 2000 for the developer and declared it safe for homes.

Harry Thomas Jr., the agent for Lexington Manor Inc., which developed the subdivision according to state records, has referred comment to builder Ryland Homes.

Mr. Thomas' attorney, Mike Fulton, said he believes everyone involved with Lexington Manor did the right thing.

Lexington Manor, however, was never entered into the OEPA's Voluntary Action Program. If it had been, that could have alleviated some of the current controversy, OEPA officials say.

The Voluntary Action Program oversees cleanup, ensures it was properly done and then certifies that no further action is needed.

At least two other subdivisions in Ohio built on former shooting ranges - including one about to start cleanup in Warren County's Clearcreek Township - took part in the program. In both, the developers either plan to or did remove the lead-contaminated soil and took it to a hazardous dump, OEPA officials said. Some of the lead also was recycled.

"As communities expand out farther and farther into the suburbs, you are starting to see this," said Amy Yersavich, manger of OEPA's Voluntary Action Program in Columbus. "Skeet shooting ranges seem to be usually out in the country, obviously, because people don't want to be by them. They are loud."

Because the OEPA program is a voluntary one, there was nothing to require landowners to come in. If they had identified lead at hazardous waste levels, however, they are required to take that soil to a hazardous waste site, Ms. Yersavich said.

In September 1998, the OEPA issued a covenant not to sue the developers of Dominion Homes, a subdivision in Franklin County in suburban Columbus, after cleanup was completed on the former shooting range, Ms. Yersavich said.

The Greens in Clearcreek Township on Bunnell Hill Road will rise on 78 acres that formerly held the Miami Valley Skeet Club for about 50 years, county records show. The property joined the Voluntary Action Program in July 2002, OEPA officials said.

At The Greens, the top two feet of soil will be taken to a certified landfill, said Phillip Hayden, owner of Hayden Environmental Group in Dayton. That's the most expensive route, but the safest, he added.

Mr. Hayden said the subdivision's developer, Fred Poley of Charter One in Dayton, wanted to go through the cleanup program so the land's previous use as a skeet shooting range and lead content would be fully disclosed. "It will be part of the public record and people in the future will want to know what went on at that site," he said.

No environmental studies

Butler County and township officials say they had no idea potentially dangerous levels of lead were buried at Lexington Manor.

Liberty Township and Butler County zoning codes do not require developers to check for contaminants in the soil before requesting a change.

County and township officials maintain they did not have the responsibility to oversee the development's lead situation.

The township generally does not require residential developers to submit environmental impact studies. Butler County doesn't, because they are too expensive and hold up projects too long, said Commissioner Mike Fox.

"Look, this is a very rare, unusual incident, and it will be handled between the developer and the homeowners," said Mr. Fox.

Trustee Bob Shelley said during Tuesday's township meeting he knew the shooting range existed but didn't think there was a potential safety issue with homes being built there: "It didn't really dawn on me there would be a lead problem there." "But there's little the trustees could have done to begin with," he said. "We had no ball to drop."

Some residents remain upset with the municipalities.

Liberty just hired its first, full-time zoning supervisor in December. Before that, part-time staff mostly oversaw the township's building boom.

"The bottom line is we have to trust the environmental and air qualities have been met in everyone who builds in the area," said Tom Farrell, president of the Four Bridges Homeowners Association in Liberty. "It is not something we check. And we count on our local government to do that.

"I don't know who's to blame but it's a concern that it was not done," he continued. "I also think this whole thing is, we are growing very quickly. We sometimes grow quicker than we have people in place to administer these things. Efforts are being made in hiring additional people to make sure these things don't happen.

"But that doesn't help the residents of Lexington Manor."

In Warren County, planners knew the land where The Greens was slated to go used to be a skeet shooting range, said Bob Craig, executive director of the Warren County Regional Planning Commission.

As part of the development's zoning approval, the developer must submit an environmental report that cleanup was complete to the satisfaction of OEPA's and Clearcreek Township Trustees, county records show.

That stipulation is not included on the December 1999 approval for Lexington Manor, Butler County planning records show.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.