Children's park planned for top of old lead factory on Omaha riverfront

Jul 16, 2023

Agreement in the 90s banned trees from the site. Designers and engineers are asking the state to let them place the plants anyway.

Agreement in the 90s banned trees from the site. Designers and engineers are asking the state to let them place the plants anyway.

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Agreement in the 90s banned trees from the site. Designers and engineers are asking the state to let them place the plants anyway.

It's hard to find shade during summer months along Omaha's riverfront.

There are no trees, and their absence is not an accident.

Lewis and Clark Landing sits on top of an old lead plant, and tons of toxic soil are contained underneath. There's a clay barrier keeping the lead-laced soil in place because in the late 90s, local leaders thought it was too expensive to truck away.

Now, the landing is part of a $300 million, privately-backed riverfront redevelopment effort, and designers have planned a children's park right on top of where furnaces in the lead plant once produced the toxic heavy metal.

"Having that children's playground, that destination playground, will help bring people to the area," said Katie Bassett, the new parks boss at the Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority. "It will just spur further activation."

MECA was tapped to oversee construction and activation of the Gene Leahy Mall, Heartland of America Park and Lewis and Clark Landing by the city and the Downtown Riverfront Trust, the organization created by the wealthy philanthropists, backing the project.

"It's important to keep in mind mitigation efforts were made in Lewis and Clark Landing," Bassett said in an interview with KETV NewsWatch 7 Investigates. "Part of the mitigation was having a geosynthetic clay liner which covers up any of the waste material in that area."

The City of Omaha took ownership of the land in the late 90s.

ASARCO, the company that ran the lead smelting operation on the banks of the Missouri River for more than 100 years, gave the land away after an extensive clean up effort.

But the transfer came with strings attached.

"Trees shall not be planted or allowed to grow in any capped area unless they are placed in pots or containers adequate to contain their roots," one portion of an agreement between the company and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality reads.

The majority of roots in large trees reach 2 feet deep into the ground, according to tree experts at the Morton Arboretum, a tree sanctuary in suburban Chicago. But roots of drought-resistant trees can reach even deeper, sometimes more than 20 feet, according to research shared by the Arbor Day Foundation.

The clay liner keeping the lead in place sits 6 feet underground.

The tree restriction, among others, was included in the ordinance governing the city's takeover of the site signed by then-Mayor Hal Daub in June 1998.

Trees shall not be planted or allowed to grow in any capped area...

It's a restriction the landscape architects and engineers behind the riverfront redevelopment are confident they can now get axed by state regulators.

"Those covenants were extremely restrictive," said Chris Koenig, the senior project manager with Omaha-based HDR. "ASARCO is defunct, and the city still owns the property, so part of what we are working with the state on is renegotiating those covenants."

In an interview with KETV NewsWatch 7 Investigates, Koenig said state regulators are open to allowing trees on the site as long as HDR and OJB, the landscape architects hired for the project, can "show good science and good engineering."

Koenig stressed the team is picking smaller, ornamental trees.

"Everyone keeps worrying about the taproot that's going to go down to Texas," he said. "We're picking trees that have a shallow root ball."

At least one local leader is skeptical.

"If the conceptualization goes as shown, I would have major concerns," said Douglas County Commissioner Marc Kraft.

Kraft was on city council when the mitigation happened more than two decades ago. He fought the plan to bury the lead problem then, and is worried too many people have forgotten how bad the ASARCO site was.

"If the people who covered the contamination had such stringent rules on it, was there a reason for those stringent rules?" he asks. "Should they be disregarded just because the company is out of business? I don't think so."

Koenig argued deep roots affecting the clay liner are not a risk, especially given the fact that engineers are going to build irrigation systems that keep water toward the ground's surface. Roots stay where the water is, he said.

Kraft made a point to say he likes certain riverfront redevelopment plans.

He thinks the redesign of Gene Leahy Mall will be the kind of transformation that will turbocharge downtown development.

But Kraft worries specifically about Lewis and Clark Landing. If something goes wrong, children will be playing right above the lead, he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified no safe blood lead level in children. Its research shows even low levels of lead in blood can affect the ability to pay attention and academic achievement.

"Why they came up with this exact conceptualization I don't know," Kraft said.

Everyone keeps worrying about the taproot that's going to go down to Texas.

The riverfront redevelopment project spans 90 acres in downtown Omaha. There are already children's spaces planned for Gene Leahy Mall and Heartland of America Park. So why build more on top of the lead trapped under Lewis and Clark Landing?

Bassett, whose job is to get as many people to use and enjoy the park as possible, said for the project to be successful, children's areas need to be in every one of the three parks.

"The design team has a thoughtful process on how to spread out those opportunities," she said.

Koenig is confident Lewis and Clark Landing will be safe, and he dismissed any concerns.

"I've got grandkids, and I'm planning to bring them down," he said.