Lead bullets will have to come from overseas after EPA ...

"We, the American public have been blindsided again by the Obama crowd!!!" warns a chain . "Last Lead smelting plant -- gone."

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The goes on to blame the "Evil Protection Agency" for shutting down a lead smelting plant, calling it "backdoor gun control" and saying it will result in the cost of bullets soaring.

"All lead for bullets will have to come from overseas!" the says, adding, "Long term what this means: Your investment in ammo may be your best investment. Guns will be plentiful but ammo will be another story. How does $3.75 a round (that's for one bullet) for a 9mm work for you?  Box of 50 would only cost you $187.50."

We wondered: Is the correct to say that all lead for bullets will now have to come from overseas?

The Doe Run plant

We&#;ve been down this road before.

In December, former Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West of South Florida, stated on his website: "It seems that back door gun control is in full effect in the United States. Why? Thanks to Obama&#;s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we can no longer smelt lead from ore in the United States. ... So America, back door gun control is moving forward and while we are all distracted with Obamacare and Iran nuclear negotiations, our Second Amendment rights are undergoing an assault by clandestine infiltration."

We rated West&#;s claim Pants on Fire.

The shuttered smelter, operated by Doe Run, is located in Herculaneum, Mo. Facing regulatory concerns about its air-quality record, Doe Run announced in that it had reached a settlement with the EPA and the state of Missouri which included paying fines. Then, in December , it shut down. We found no evidence that the EPA&#;s settlement had anything to do with gun control -- it was about pollution.

Ever since the EPA was created in , one of its missions has been to limit pollution from smelters, which are "terribly toxic sites," said David Rosner, a professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University who studies the politics of pollution, told us when we wrote fact-checked West. Lead can accumulate in the body from many sources, and it can severely hamper mental and physical development.

"It had nothing to do with gun control or bullets," Rosner told PolitiFact. "The idea of linking this to an issue of gun control or a surreptitious way for the government trying to shut down the gun industry is nuts. This was an EPA decision because of children who were being poisoned by what had come out of that plant."

Indeed, while the chain blames Obama, the EPA&#;s case against Doe Run actually began decades ago. The St. Louis area failed to meet federal clean air standards for lead in due to emissions from the smelter, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in . That was during the Reagan administration.

Reagan wasn't the only Republican president who presided over an advance in the national anti-lead effort. In , during the tenure of President George W. Bush, the EPA adopted tougher air quality standards for lead that were 10 times more stringent than the past.

Doe Run&#;s primary smelter -- a plant that extracts lead from ore -- was the last primary smelter in the country. But Doe Run continues to operate as a secondary lead smelter -- essentially a recycler for lead contained in other products. That includes -- you guessed it -- bullets.

A company spokeswoman told us in December that more than 80 percent of all lead produced in the United States is used in either vehicle batteries or in stationary batteries for backup power used by the military and in telecommunications and medical applications.

"In the U.S., the recycle rate of these batteries is approximately 98 percent, making lead-based batteries the most highly recycled consumer product," the company said in a statement. "These batteries are recycled at secondary lead smelters. We own such a smelter in southern Missouri."

In our previous fact check, Doe Run spokeswoman Tammy Stankey told us that the company "will continue to supply our ammo customers using secondary lead."

We contacted Stankey again for this fact-check.

"The primary smelter did close, (but) we are still supplying ammo customers through our only secondary smelter," she told us. "We do know that primary lead is being imported to the U.S., but we don&#;t know if it is specific to ammunition suppliers. ... There are many other uses of lead."

Ammunition experts

Now that the Doe Run primary smelter has been shuttered for a few months, we checked back with ammunition experts to see whether there&#;s any evidence that all lead for bullets now comes from overseas.

An NRA spokesman referred us to the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Spokesman Mike Bazinet told us for this fact-check that "almost all the lead used in ammunition in the U.S. comes from secondary sources, recycled car batteries and other sources of lead. The closing of the lead smelter has not had any effect on ammunition prices or availability. ... Lead for bullets comes from secondary sources, and that was not completely understood by people out there. We certainly tried explain that it's had virtually no effect on ammunition prices."

While some ammunition is imported to the U.S. from overseas, "it would be pretty heavy stuff to send (lead) across the ocean and put into a bullet. There are secondary sources of lead in sufficient quantity in the United States."

Tom Falone -- president of Clearwater-based Florida Bullet, which supplies ammunition to law-enforcement agencies in Florida -- said its manufacturer has been using reclaimed lead for years.

"I think that by the time we see a shortage, the industry will have found another material to replace the lead with," Falone said.

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Our ruling

A chain said that following closure of a lead smelter in Missouri, "all lead for bullets will have to come from overseas!"

While the closure of a Doe Run primary lead smelter in December means there are no smelters to make lead from ore anywhere in the United States, smelters to recycle lead remain in operation, and their output is substantial enough to satisfy the needs of ammunition manufacturers. Four months after that particular smelter closed, we found no evidence that all lead for bullets now comes from overseas.

We rate the claim Pants on Fire.

The former American Lead facility, located at Hillside Avenue in Indianapolis, was used for industrial purposes dating back to at least the late s. National Lead Industries (NL Industries) conducted secondary lead smelting at the property from to . Historic operations at the smelter contaminated the surface soil of the surrounding community with lead.

The American Lead Environmental Advisory Area is located on the northeast side of downtown Indianapolis and is made up of industrial, commercial and residential properties, community centers, playgrounds, parks, churches, and schools. The boundaries for the American Lead Environmental Advisory Area are based on sample results and by using a computer model that predicts where lead would most likely be. See Figure 1.

Figure 1: American Lead Environmental Advisory Area

Interactive Map

IDEM has developed an interactive GIS map to place your property within or outside the boundaries of the Environmental Advisory Area. Search your address using the information in the upper left corner of the page.

History

As early as , the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), the Marion County Public Health Department (MCPHD), and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) have been collecting soil samples and assessing the former American Lead site and surrounding properties.

Between and , NL Industries removed and disposed of soil contaminated with lead above U.S. EPA&#;s cleanup level. Soil was removed to a depth of one foot in general residential areas and up to two feet in gardens and play areas. If sampling after removal showed that the soil remained above the action level, an orange snow fence marker was installed to identify the presence of impacted soil below the marker. NL Industries removed lead-contaminated soil at 224 properties.

In August , U.S. EPA conducted another removal action at residential properties surrounding the former American Lead site. U.S. EPA removed over 25,000 tons of lead-contaminated soil from an additional 103 properties. Soil was generally removed to a depth of two feet.  An orange snow fence marker was installed to identify the bottom of the excavation.  Between the two removal actions, markers were installed at an additional 103 properties.

Since the soil removals, IDEM continues to work with federal, state and local site stakeholders to raise citizen awareness of remaining lead soil contamination in the American Lead Environmental Advisory Area. Activities supporting those efforts included:

• Development and mailing of a lead awareness informational brochure [PDF] to property owners within the American Lead Environmental Advisory Area
• Creation of an American Lead informational website, a property parcel database, and an interactive public map containing multiple search functions to determine if a parcel is located within the American Lead Advisory Area
• Responding to property status information requests by property owners/renters.

Additionally, in , IDEM began a re-assessment of lead in soils at properties located within the American Lead Environmental Advisory Area. Tasks associated with these re-assessments include:

• The issuance of a press release outlining IDEM&#;s upcoming field work,
• Collection of surface soil field screening data from right-of-ways near properties where no data is currently available.
• Collection of surface soil field screening data from residential yards, when requested, and with a signed permission to sample form.

Property Status

The map depicts the American Lead Environmental Advisory Area as an area where there is potential environmental contamination. IDEM recommends confirming the status of every parcel before digging to learn if precautionary actions are necessary. Digging restrictions, specific to each parcel within the American Lead Environmental Advisory Area, may be recommended to protect human health.

Not every property within the American Lead Environmental Advisory Area was remediated. One of the following may have occurred:

1. The property was not tested because the property owner at the time did not grant access, or the property was outside of the investigation boundaries;
2. The soil from the property was tested and the lead concentrations were below the cleanup level;
3. The soil from the property was tested and lead impacted soil was removed completely and replaced with clean soil; or
4. The soil from the property was tested and the contaminated soil was removed to a certain depth, orange snow fencing was placed, and clean soil was added up to ground level.

In order to determine the status of your property, please contact IDEM at .

Disclaimer: IDEM may be able to assist with testing properties that have not previously been tested. However, at present, there is no funding to conduct additional removal activities.

Contact Information

Indiana Department of Environmental Management
Lynette Schrowe
Technical Environmental Specialist
Institutional Controls Group
(317) 234-

Additional Resources

Indianapolis

City of Indianapolis
Principal Program Manager - Brownfield Redevelopment Program
Department of Metropolitan Development
(317) 327-

Marion County

Marion County Public Health Department
Karla Johnson, Administrator
Healthy Homes, Environmental Consumer Management & Senior Care Department
(317) 221-

Blood Lead Testing
Marion County Public Health Department offers a free weekly walk-in clinic for blood lead testing every Thursday at Meadows Drive from noon to 5:00 p.m. No appointment needed.  
For additional information or to schedule blood lead testing outside of the regular Thursday walk-in clinic times, please call (317) 221-.

U.S. EPA

U.S. EPA, Region 5
Jason Sewell, On Scene Coordinator
(317) 517-

Ruth Muhtsun, Community Involvement Coordinator
(312) 886-

Fact Sheets

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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