Tar Creek Conference highlights flooding impact on cleanup progress – Yahoo News

Oct. 13MIAMI, Okla. The detrimental impacts of flooding and the exposure to toxins carried by floodwaters was a topic of concern Wednesday during day one of the 24th annual Tar Creek Conference. The event focuses on the ongoing environmental challenges faced at the Tar Creek Superfund Site from historic lead and zinc mining.

Local Environmental Action Demanded, or LEAD Agency, hosts the annual conference to bring together scientists, tribal leaders and government agencies with local residents to discuss current environmental issues facing the region.

LEAD Agency, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, was formed in 1997 to begin working on both the health and the environmental issues in Northeast Oklahoma.

Tar Creek, one of the oldest and most complex Superfund sites in the country, is a former lead and zinc mining area, part of the Tri-State Mining District that included Southwest Missouri, Northeast Oklahoma and Southeast Kansas. Historic lead and zinc mining began in the region in the late 1800s and the earlier part of the 1900s, but it left behind toxic heavy metals in the process.

Large scale pumps were used to control groundwater inflow to mines, but once the mines ceased operation, they flooded.

In 1979, acidic water from former mines began flowing to the surface near Commerce and flowed into Tar Creek, killing most of the life downstream and running red as a result of contamination.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added Tar Creek to the federal National Priorities List, making it a Superfund site, in 1983 due to high concentrations of cadmium, lead and zinc in the mined areas of Ottawa County.

Nearly 40 years later, cleanup efforts are ongoing, but more work remains as continuous flooding events backtrack some of the progress already made.

Progress

The Quapaw Nation works closely with the EPA and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality to clean the Tar Creek Superfund Site of any source material, such as chat and mine tailings.

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According to the EPA, approximately 7 million tons of mine source material has been addressed, as of March 2022. As a result, nearly 5,000 acres have been cleaned up and made available for future use.

Craig Kreman, environmental director with the Quapaw Nation, said they've removed 7,703,168 total tons of source material to date at the Tar Creek Superfund Site. Throughout this work, 184 mineshafts and subsidences have been capped, and 197 case borings have been plugged.

The waste is consolidated and taken to the Central Mill Tailings Pond Repository, which is designed to hold approximately 20 million tons of material. The Quapaw Nation is also focusing on cleaning up watersheds such as Beaver Creek and Elm Creek.

Operable Unit 2 of the Tar Creek Superfund Site was established to address contaminated soil in residential and high-access areas such as parks, playgrounds and schools within the boundaries of Ottawa County. The EPA began cleaning up residential yards, alleyways and parks in 1995, and then handed over the program to the state of Oklahoma in 2015.

The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality manages Operable Unit 2, or residential areas, within the Tar Creek Superfund Site. Any resident in Ottawa County is eligible for ODEQ's Residential Yard Cleanup Program.

On Wednesday, ODEQ officials shared the progress being made with cleanup in residential areas, which is also ongoing.

ODEQ has sampled over 200 residential properties and high access areas throughout the county since 2016. Almost 90 properties and high access areas have been cleaned up and over 10,000 tons of contaminated material have been removed.

Kristen Bliss, Operable Unit 2 Remedial Action project manager with ODEQ, said the state has sampled more than 150 properties this year since January. Lead contamination has been identified in 20 of those properties and have been recommended for cleanup. She added that they worked closely with local landlords to coordinate testing of rental properties in Miami and Commerce.

"It's a voluntary program, so we have to depend on you, the community, to help us get participation" said Bliss. "Get your neighbors, family or friends to sign up. That's how we keep this program going, and that's how you help us out by giving us the opportunity to test more properties."

Residents can contact ODEQ to schedule a time for officials to sample a section of the property and will receive their results within four to six weeks. Bliss said if they discover high levels of contamination, they'll suggest cleanup.

"We'll give them a map of exactly what we're going to do to remove the contamination, and we try to make it look even better than what was originally there," she said. "I always want people to be happy with what we've done."

Ongoing challenges

Recurring floods in Ottawa County pose a major risk to human and environmental health, and scientists believe it will only continue to grow worse with climate change. Floodwaters can move chat and other contaminants into yards and locations that have already been cleaned up.

In effort to better illustrate floods in Ottawa County, LEAD Agency unveiled a new interactive flood map on Wednesday.

LEAD Agency partnered with the science nonprofit American Geophysical Union's Thriving Earth Exchange to create an interactive flood map for residents to see what properties lie in floodplains and areas that have been affected by past floods.

Rebecca Jim, executive director of LEAD Agency, said the map shows how contaminants from chat piles are flowing downstream and landing in yards, playgrounds and parks.

"This water is tainted, and in 1947, the mining companies said that if you turn off the pumps beneath the mining site, we will poison your lake," said Jim. "I'm asking the EPA, at this point, to consider what we must do... the next operable unit must be Grand Lake."

To access the flood map and locate your property, visit https://bit.ly/3CAIVFo or contact the LEAD Agency at 918-542-9399.

The 24th annual Tar Creek Conference will conclude in the evening on Thursday in the Student Union Ballroom at Northeastern A&M College in Miami.

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Tar Creek Conference highlights flooding impact on cleanup progress - Yahoo News