EPA Presents Plan For Latest Phase To Clean Up Superfund Site

Tuesday, August 28th 2007, 2:49 pm

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency has a plan to clean up some 50 million tons of lead contaminated chat, or mine waste, from the Tar Creek Superfund site. This represents the fourth phase of cleanup at Tar Creek, a 40-square-mile area that also takes in portions of Missouri and Kansas and was one of the world's most productive regions for lead and zinc, providing raw material for bullets in both world wars.

The plan was to be presented Tuesday night in Picher.

The EPA's options for dealing with the mountains of leftover chat and other mine waste include disposal at an on-site location, injection back into underground mine caverns and shoring up areas weakened by cave-ins.

A public comment period on the proposal has been extended by the EPA until Oct. 1. After that, it could take up to several months to develop a final plan.

"Any time you deal with people's lives and their health and their property, it's very sensitive," said Sam Coleman, director of the Superfund Division for EPA Region 6. "We've been very careful to do thorough and careful analysis, work with state, local and tribal officials and make sure all available information is considered."

A fifth cleanup phase dealing with surface water and streams is already in the early planning stages, Coleman said.

Tar Creek is one of the oldest and largest Superfund cleanup sites in the country.

For decades, miners hollowed out miles of tunnels underneath Picher and neighboring communities of Cardin, Quapaw, Commerce and North Miami.

The mines closed around 1970, but the environmental damage had already been done.

Dust from mountains of chat blow through town. Cave-ins and sinkholes have swallowed up homes and children. The creek runs a ghastly orange with acidic mine water. And the air and soil are polluted with lead dust.

High lead levels have been found in the blood of local children, but no studies have been done on its effects on the youngsters around Picher, a dying town of about 1,000.

Last year, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study found more than 100 homes in Picher were in danger of collapsing into old mines.

In the past few years, parents worried about their children's health have flooded the school district with transfer applications, and a federal buyout program is speeding up the exodus.

Related Stories:

10/3/2006 Group Gets Buyout Requests From Tar Creek Area

10/15/2006 Residents Of Mine-Polluted Ottawa County Town Preparing For Buyout

11/13/2006 Officials To Give Tar Creek Buyout Information

12/19/2006 Appraisals Begin For Tar Creek Federal Buyout

2/12/2007 Voters Deciding Fate Of School District

2/12/2007 Tar Creek Trust Says Land Was Given Away

3/3/2007 Oklahoma Town Is A Toxic Waste Site

4/7/2007 Delay In Offers, Low Assessments Worry Some Tar Creek Residents

5/10/2007 Tar Creek Buyout Continues Amid Funding Concerns

5/18/2007 Tar Creek Pollution Called Regional Problem

6/30/2007 Former Lawmaker To Lead Tar Creek Trust

8/2/2007 Coburn Criticizes Spending Priorities On Water Projects Bill