BOWLING GREEN — What began as a local concern over aesthetics in one Kentucky city, about an aging and unsightly railroad bridge, may have far-reaching implications for towns across the state and nation.

The CSX Transportation bridge over the Barren River in Bowling Green had long been a local eyesore, as paint flaked into the river and onto its banks, but when local philanthropist David Garvin offered to restore the bridge in 2009 it became the symbol of a battle between locals and the railroad. More than a year later, the bridge still hasn’t been painted, but testing of the banks revealed lead contamination – and questions about how many bridges across the country might be in similar condition.

“We have gotten CSX’s and U.S. EPA’s attention,” Garvin told the Daily News of Bowling Green in August. “What started out as painting a Rust Belt image bridge has, in fact, uncovered a major national lead pollution problem on thousands of bridges across the Eastern United States.”

In July 2009 Garvin, who had restored some other local bridges, told the Daily News that he could restore the Barren River bridge for half the price of previous estimates. All he needed was permission from all relevant parties to do the work, as well as the money to cover the project. However, CSX didn’t go along, saying it had no plans to repaint the bridge, which it said would only be useful for another 20 years anyway.

That answer displeased Garvin, who thought the bridge was not just an eyesore, but also was polluting the river and soil below. Soil samples gathered by Garvin and tested at a Western Kentucky University laboratory showed between 2,810 parts per million and 7,700 parts per million of lead, at least seven times the recommended level for soil in a residential or play area.

“I took hundreds of samples of my own and sent them to four different labs, including an EPA-approved facility in Nashville,” Garvin told the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

Following complaints from Bowling Green officials, CSX Transportation said that if the right regulations were followed, a third party might be allowed to repaint the bridge, but only at someone else’s expense.  That answer didn’t please Garvin or local officials, who asked EPA to force CSX into action.

In February, CSX sent a letter to Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker saying it would test lead levels around the bridge and take appropriate action in elevated readings were discovered.

“Recently, concerns have been expressed about the potential for environmental impacts under the CSX Transportation Inc. bridge crossing the Barren River,” wrote David Hall, CSX vice president of public affairs. “CSXT places the highest priority on safety, health and the environment. Depending on the results of the sampling, CSXT will then undertake actions necessary to address concerns.”

CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan acknowledged to the Daily News that the company had conducted tests around the bridge in 2005, following an e-mail from a state water inspector, who expressed concerns about lead paint flaking into the river. CSX said testing from a consultant proved there was limited risk of lead contamination, but an open-records request from the Daily News revealed that state regulators were concerned about the 2005 tests’ accuracy.

Garvin didn’t wait for CSX to conduct more tests.  He told the Daily News in June that his sampling revealed lead contamination at levels “drastically higher than acceptable,” and sent his results to the EPA regional office in Atlanta. Administrator Stanley Meiburg replied that EPA would let state officials and CSX to take appropriate action to “protect against harmful exposure to lead in the soil.”

This month, the state Division of Waste Management sent CSX a letter saying the company’s plan to further test and remove contaminated soil near the bridge was acceptable as written, but recommended that the remaining paint on the bridge be evaluated for removing or sealing to prevent further contamination.

Last week CSX officials began soil testing and removal around the bridge, the Daily News reports. The testing “could prompt the state to consider if it needs to look at the condition of other CSX bridges in Kentucky,” Robyn L. Minor reported Aug. 20.

Concern has been raised in several states about contamination from lead paint on old bridges.

The Bloomington (Minn.) City Council is debating whether to rehabilitate the unusable Cedar Avenue Bridge over the Minnesota River, which is leaching lead paint into the river. Officials working to restore the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge in North Carolina have taken steps to prevent lead paint chips from falling into the river.

Officials in Canton, Conn., were charged with rehabilitating the town’s historic Town Bridge Road bridge and received a state grant of more than $5 million for the project. The town wants to repair the bridge, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, rather than demolish it, The Canton News reports.

To keep costs down, the Canton Board of Selectmen voted to deconstruct the bridge and reassemble it following repairs. Engineers said the cost of protecting the river below during repairs would be too much.

No one should have to tell Garvin or Bowling Green residents what the chief concern was: Canton officials didn’t want lead paint flaking into the Farmington River below.