Doe Run Agreement Will Allow Homeowners To Leave Contaminated Area

160 homeowners living near the country’s biggest lead smelter in Herculaneum will be offered a chance to leave, to be bought out by the Doe Run Lead Company. A six-hour negotiating session with Doe Run has produced the agreement. Doe Run will immediately move to buy 26 houses where children younger than six live. The other 134 buyout offers will be made later. Doe Run has agreed to pay fair market value for the properties. Studies show half the children living within one-half mile of the smelter have lead poisoning.