Roseville Lead Contamination

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Village of Roseville has a proud history of being a prominent industrial community for much of the 19th and 20th centuries.

And many of those industrial practices were centered around getting the job done in the most cost-effective manner.

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Anne Vogel discussed how the state will spend $1.1 Million Dollars to collect and test soil samples from approximately 700 properties within the village to determine the extent of decades worth of lead exposure. 

“Well so it’s a priority of Governor DeWine’s to protect children from lead exposure,” Vogel said. “So whether that’s in water, weather that’s in paint, whether it’s in the soil, in their yards. We know kids play in the dirt, we know kids play in the soil. It gets on their hands, it gets on their feet and on their shoes, gets in the house. So we just want to be partners with our communities to get the lead out and we want to be partners with the Ohio Department of Health and really move forward the governor’s priority to protect children.”

12 properties where pottery manufacturing once took place have already been tested but the village requested that further measures be taken.

Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department Medical Director Dr. Jack Butterfield talked about how the current measures to clean up toxic bi-products from previous generations can prove beneficial for generations to come.   

“This town is full of kids. And kids play outside. They play in the dirt, they swim in the creeks. It’s not their fault there’s lead in our soil.  Is it anybody’s fault? They didn’t know 50, 60, 70, 80 years ago about the toxicity of lead in the glazes and paints that made Roseville Pottery so valuable worldwide.”

The Village of Roseville and the Ohio EPA will hold a public information meeting 5p.m. Thursday, March 21st, at the Barker Community Center, located on Karl Brown Road.