Maps detailing potential collapse in Ottawa County to be released

Monday, January 30th 2006, 5:10 pm

By: News On 6

MIAMI, Okla. (AP) -- Some residents living within the Tar Creek Superfund site in northeastern Oklahoma will soon learn just how close their homes are to a potential ground collapse.

Detailed maps of areas considered to be at risk will be released Tuesday night at a town hall meeting being hosted by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Picher Housing Authority director John Sparkman says a Corps report indicates a 20 percent probability of collapse at depths of two to ten feet in an area where there are 24 federally subsidized housing units. Seventeen of the units are occupied.

The study has already led state officials to assign weight restrictions on US Highway 69 in and out of Picher.

Tar Creek is a 40 square-mile area where lead and zinc mining took place and has been plagued with mine collapses, open mine shafts, acid mine water and mountains of lead-contaminated waste.