Tar Creek official blasts Tom Coburn for Tar Creek comments

Monday, October 25th 2004, 4:50 pm

By: News On 6

MIAMI, Okla. (AP) -- A telephone message from the founder of the Tar Creek Basin Steering Committee that criticizes US Senate candidate Tom Coburn is going out to voters in northeast Oklahoma.

John Sparkman says Coburn only visited the Tar Creek Superfund site one time in six years while he was in Congress. He says the Muskogee Republican took little action to address the issue as a congressman.

But Coburn says the automated telephone message to voters in Ottawa and Delaware counties is misleading. He says he visited the area six times as a member of Congress and is not opposed to relocating area residents.

Coburn says Tar Creek remediation efforts have been mishandled by federal bureaucrats who squandered money that should have helped residents.