Mammoth, Wyoming — A current employee of Yellowstone is suing the national park to address the adverse effects worker housing allegedly has had on his family’s health.
The Powell Tribune reports that an employee of Yellowstone is suing the U.S. Department of the Interior over his children’s lead contamination that likely came from employee housing at Fort Yellowstone.
Back in 2018, Anthony Aiuppa and his family moved into housing at Fort Yellowstone. His kids lived there for a total of three years. The family alleges that they weren’t notified of the hazards that were a part of living there. The building they lived in reportedly features a large amount of lead dust that came from old paint. They were eventually moved to another home in Fort Yellowstone.
Both kids ultimately tested positive for lead poisoning. One of his children has dealt with medical issues, while the other has a harmful amount of it in their system.
“The way the kids were encountering it, in dust form, is a particularly troublesome way to do it because there’s such high bio uptake, said Jon Moyers, an attorney that’s representing the Aiuppa family, to the Powell Tribune.
The big debate in this case is whether Yellowstone notified the family about the risks associated with living there. Yellowstone National Park claims that they do forewarn residents about the dangers, while the Aiuppa family claims that they weren’t notified.
“The park notifies employees living in government housing of potential [lead-based paint] and other potential hazards and remains committed to protecting residents and workers from environmental health risks,” said Linda Veress, a spokesperson for Yellowstone National Park.
Fort Yellowstone was built starting in 1890, which was well before lead paint was banned in 1978. Yellowstone has 290 employee housing units that were built before the ban. The national park has spent tens of millions of dollars on employee housing in recent years, including on projects at Fort Yellowstone.
The family is suing the U.S. Department of the Interior to help cover the costs from the medical issues faced by the children so far, and what could transpire in the future. According to Moyers, the ultimate goal of this lawsuit is to create more awareness about the current issues regarding Yellowstone’s employee housing.
“We’d like some change of policy, or some recognition that other people were exposed, said Moyers. “That’s as important to the family as it is for them to have funds that would allow them to routinely screen their children and deal with the adverse conditions as they develop.”
Image/Video Credits: Yellowstone National Park/National Park Service
