Region 1: New England
Lead Safe Yard Data: Background Levels
Lead Safe Yard Data
- Typical Site
- The Data
- One Street in Dorchester
- Background Levels
A distribution analysis of LSYP data from the 1998 and 1999 field
season with respect to distance the sample was collected from
the building on each property. Four distances were evaluated (1
to 3 feet, 4 to 7 feet,
8 to 15, and greater than 15 feet from the building).
- The majority of the highest soil lead levels are located within the 1-3 foot drip line around the home
- Concentration decreases with an increase in distance from the building.
- Based on a statistical analysis of these data, we have estimated the surface background level of lead in these urban residential soils to be around 500 ppm.
- The estimated surface background level for residential yards in the study is well above expected ambient background levels which should range somewhere between 2 and 200 ppm.