NEW ORLEANS — An Environmental Protection Agency memo filed as part of a federal lawsuit by Gert Town neighbors suggests the presence of the hazardous material know as Radium-226 under the road surface in the 3400 block of Lowerline near Coolidge Court was no secret to local, state and federal environmental agencies.
The document dated May 17, 2019 also stated the radiation posed a health threat to the surrounding community.
According to the EPA, a person's yearly radiation exposure limit could be exceeded at street level in less than one hour per day.
Leo Soniat has lived just feet from the radiation hotspot since 1995.
"We sit out here all the time," Soniat said. "We're in my yard all the time. They're saying one hour. I'm out in my yard more than an hour a day."
The memo revealed the hotspot was first detected during a sweep of the area by the U.S. Department of Energy prior to the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans.
Another sweep in 2017, before a WWE event in the Superdome, identified the hotspot.
RELATED: Documents obtained by WWL-TV outline what city knew about Gert Town radiation, when they knew it
Last December, the city and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality hired a contractor to excavate the site.
The contractor discovered contaminated soil and road base under Lowerline Street.
Neighbors claim they were never told about the radiation.
Instead, they received a flyer in late May, notifying them about road construction on Lowerline.
"It didn't say anything about hazardous material at all," Soniat said. "It didn't say anything about radiation, anything like that. Just road construction."
Soniat's attorney Steve Rando maintains the city had an obligation to notify residents about the radiation.
"As soon as they became aware that this was hazardous and it needed to be removed, they should have closed the street and warned the public," Rando said.
Rando added, the radiation may have been under the road in Gert Town since 1940 or 1950 according to the EPA.
"The soil has to be sampled immediately," Rando said. "We have to determine how much radiation is still left under Lowerline."
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Gert Town neighbors said the least the city can do at this point is to test everyone within a five block radius of this site for their level of radiation exposure.
"They haven't tested anybody in the neighborhood to find out what our conditions are," Soniat said. "What are possibilities are of getting sick later on. Show some respect and concern for the people."
The source of the radiation is still a mystery.
The city contractor found contaminated soil below two levels of pavement and a seashell road base