EPA to restart East Helena soil cleanup at 44 priority properties

After months of delay, the Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to send crews back into East Helena yards, but the restart begins with just 44 priority properties. That is far fewer than the 100 yards the agency estimated in January would be mitigated in 2026, a narrower pace that leaves many households still waiting for visible cleanup.

Weston Solutions, the contractor hired in March, is expected to begin initial excavation work on June 15. The company’s return matters because East Helena families have lived for years with the legacy of lead contamination from the former smelter, which operated from 1888 through 2001 and left contaminated soils across residential neighborhoods, alleys, road aprons and other unpaved areas. The East Helena Superfund site was placed on EPA’s National Priorities List in 1984.

The cleanup itself is not cosmetic. EPA materials say affected soil is removed to at least 18 inches deep, then replaced with clean soil and sod or equivalent landscaping. That makes the project disruptive for homeowners, but it also speaks to the scale of the contamination problem, especially in a place where the health risks of lead exposure fall hardest on children and families who spend time in yards and play areas.

The pace remains a central concern. EPA lowered East Helena’s residential soil-lead cleanup level to 400 parts per million in 2024, replacing the prior 500 ppm cleanup level and removing the older 1,000 ppm action threshold. The change, EPA said, reflected a better understanding of lead’s health effects and made hundreds of properties newly eligible for cleanup. EPA also said the expansion could open the door for hundreds more yards to be addressed over time, with plans to remediate hundreds of East Helena properties by late 2027.

Funding is in place, but the reduced 2026 target raises questions about staffing, sequencing and how quickly the work can reach homes already signed up. EPA and the Biden administration announced $40 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding in February 2024, and Weston has said its East Helena contract is worth $100 million over five years under a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers interagency agreement. The company also said a locally based Property Coordination Team and East Helena project office will help coordinate access and scheduling.

Local reporting has said more than 100 residents already signed agreements allowing work on their land, with at least 91 properties targeted for completion in 2026. For East Helena, the restart marks progress, but the smaller opening round underscores how much cleanup remains before the community can move beyond the pollution left behind by the smelter.