OU seeking patent for Tar Creek cleanup plan

(Norman-AP) -- Students and faculty at the University of Oklahoma say they've found a way to help clean up the Tar Creek Superfund site.<br><br>The O-U Office of Technology has filed a patent for 19

Monday, May 8th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Norman-AP) -- Students and faculty at the University of Oklahoma say they've found a way to help clean up the Tar Creek Superfund site.

The O-U Office of Technology has filed a patent for 19 students as co-inventors, along with three professors who led the class and a Norman-based environmental cleanup company.

Years of zinc and lead mining around the towns of Miami, Quapaw and Picher have left behind as much as 100 million cubic yards
of gravel-like waste called "chat."

The students concluded that separation techniques used by the mining industry could produce a non-hazardous material from the
larger pieces of chat.

They also say the containment and control of the existing chat piles would result in an immediate reduction in contamination.

The Norman company is Surbec-ART Environmental L.L.C.