1

Toxic Town An Environmental Case Study on Picher, OK

Garrett Lewis Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi

1.

Introduction
The far corner of northeast Oklahoma is a place locals colloquially reference as

'Green Country' because of it's rolling hills and lush grass. But, nestled within the green landscape is environmental scar with little hope of healing: The town of Picher (Figure 1).

Figure 1. ArcGIS image depicting Picher, OK which is located within the Tar Creek Superfund in the northeast Oklahoma county of Ottawa. The once thriving boom-town turned bust-town a half century ago when the mining companies left. At it's peak, it was the largest producer of zinc and lead in the world with a heaping 5.2 million tons of zinc and 1.3 million tons of lead (Andrews &

3 Masoner, 2011). Pitcher supplied 45% of the lead used in bullets during World Wars I and II (Everett, 2013). The town that was once enlisted to help win the war has essentially lost the battle and is arguably the largest Superfund failure to date. This paper examines the rise and fall of Picher, Oklahoma and evaluates the environmental fallout from the hundreds of mines and miles of debris that continue to litter the landscape, making it one of the most toxic towns in America.

2.

Heavy Metal Mining & Chat

Picher became one of the largest heavy metal mines in the world in the early

1900s when zinc and iron ore were found beneath the surface in 1871 (Shriver & Kennedy, 2005). In the years that followed, mining operations spread from Oklahoma into Kansas and Missouri encompassing over 1,900 square miles referred to as the TriState mining district. The metal is extracted from the ore through smelting, which separates the metal materials from the Earth. The region of the western Ozarks is characterized by extensive Karst topography with abundant limestone and chert used by lead smelters to separate the metals from the soil and prevent oxidation. The by-product of the metal mining is technically called 'tailings' but referred to by locals as 'chat'. The white chat contains chemicals and heavy metals such as: arsenic, lead, cadmium, and manganese. The mining operations ended around 1970 but piles of leftover chat are still everywhere. The chat is around 40 square miles of Ottawa County, Oklahoma and for years, locals used it to build sandboxes for children, gravel driveways for homes, and racing tracks for dirt bikes; unknowingly exposing themselves to known carcinogens and heavy metals that have profound effects on neurological function. Some

4 of the chat piles are as tall as 13 story buildings and as wide as 4 football fields; the result of 480 still open mine shafts with 30,000 drill holes (Roosevelt, 2004). The problem from chat is unique because it's disbursed into the environment in many different ways, each requiring a specific and different method to remediate. For example, it leaches into the groundwater supply, rain runoff drains into nearby Tar Creek (Figure 2), & Oklahoma's windy conditions take the chat airborne for miles; many residential homes were located just feet away from the enormous chat piles.

Figure 2. This is an aerial map that shows chat deposits (white areas) which drain contaminates into nearby Tar Creek (Andrews & Masoner, 2011).

5 The late 70s and early 80s were a time when environmental concerns were thrust to the forefront of American society. Industrial pollution at Love Canal in New York amplified the general public's concern and exposed the vulnerability of balance between society and environment. The Picher mines closed in 1971, the water was found to be polluted in 1979 (Hamilton, 2005), and in 1983 the federal government took notice and Picher, OK was added to the original list of sites targeted for clean-up by a new program called Superfund (Figure 3.)

Figure 3. This map shows the Tri-State areas of Oklahoma, Kansas, & Missouri which were all affected by lead and zinc mining (Neuberger & Drake, 2007).

3.

Government Action
In 1980, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response

Compensation and Liability Act (hereafter CERCLA) which established a trust fund to clean up the many polluted sites across the country under the umbrella of the Environmental Protection Agency. Picher made the original list and continues to be on the high urgency list known as 'National Priority List" some 80 years since the mining ceased. a. Remediation & Health Concerns Since the passing of CERCLA, over $100 million dollars have been spent to remediate contaminated soil and backfill mines at a cost of $20,000 per yard (Shriver & Kennedy, 2005). Since the chat is airborne, the soil is again contaminated by wind just weeks after the land is cleaned. Ironically, it wasn't the government or the millions of dollars that caused public awareness to the problem in Picher. It was a school counselor named Rebecca Jim who read about the dangers of lead and pressured government testing to confirm her suspicions. A test of school children's blood showed that 43% had unsafe levels of lead (Kaplan & Snell, 2010). The level of lead in the blood is the highest of any Superfund site (Shafer, 2002). Lead exposure is well known to cause neurological impairment and learning disabilities in children. The children in the town were found to be continuously exposed by the house dust which acted like a reservoir for the contaminants of chat blown by the wind (Zota et al, 2011). Lead is also known to bioaccumulate; instead of being excreted by the body, the amount of lead within the bones grows with repeated

7 exposure. The contaminates have been linked to a host of illnesses including: neurologic and vascular toxicity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, kidney disease, and higher incidence of tuberculosis. For years, Ottawa County, Oklahoma had the highest tuberculosis mortality rates in the United States (Nieberding, 1983) and local doctors in the region attribute the contaminates as the reason there are 3 kidney dialysis clinics serving a region of only 30,000 people (Roosevelt 2004). The blood levels in the children tested for lead was as much as 11 times the state average (Hamilton 2005). b. Relocation In the summertime, some children swam in rain-filled mining pits. Many would return home with significant burns to their body which they presumed to be sunburns but were actually caustic chemical burns (Paynter, 2010). The EPA built dikes and diversions to prevent the runoff from flowing into nearby Tar Creek which glows orange from high acidity due to lead and zinc residue leeching from nearby mines (Figure 4.)

Figure 4. Picture of the lifeless Tar Creek turned orange from chemical oxidation (Myers, 2013).

8 New, deeper aquifers were dug to tap into water yet to be contaminated (Andrews & Masoner, 2007). The progress was slow and frustrating for the people who pressured then Governor Keating for aide. The State of Oklahoma authorized $3 million dollars for an initial government buyback program in 2005 for 52 families with young children (Gillham, 2007). A second buyout was then initiated by the EPA and extended to additional residents within the contaminated Tar Basin; however, the relocation was further complicated since the land originally belong to the Quapaw Tribe. The tribes burial ground holds spiritual and culture significance in the contaminated area. (Kaplan & Snell, 2010) c. Tornado of May 10th 2008 The towns final demise occurred in the spring of 2008 when the town took a direct hit from an EF 4 tornado with winds topping 175mph killing 6 people and destroying 114 homes. None of the homes that were destroyed were rebuilt (Paynter, 2010). The following year the police department disbanded and the school system shut down effectively making Picher a ghost town. At it's peak into the 1920s, The Picher population swelled to over 14,000 people. According to the 2010 census, only 20 people and 6 homes remain (Census, 2010). The tornado accelerated the towns decline. Those remaining few who refused to sell to the government are holdouts who refer to themselves as 'chat rats'. Other land owners moved out of the town but refused to sell because the buyout was limited to only 5 acres. A cattle farmer, named Everett Green, still owns an 80 head cattle operation which grazes and drinks water from within the contaminated area surrounded by chat. Cattle from his

9 farm are sold throughout the country but he says: Of course, we hardly ever eat one of our own cows (Paynter, 2010).

4.

EPAs Latest Report

An EPA report issued in September of 2013 highlights some of the planned

activities and estimated work that is scheduled to occur in the coming years. A total of $35 million dollars was award to the site from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act but the EPA estimates an additional $167 million would be needed for complete remediation. Including the towns surrounding Picher, 2,846 residential yards have been remediated with a remaining 113 due to be completed by the end of 2013. A total of 83 wells have been capped and acid drainage from the abandoned mines is still being diverted to prevent additional contamination of the Tar Creek watershed (EPA, 2013).

5.

Conclusion
The problem with Picher, OK and the greater Tar Creek Superfund area is as

complex as it is polluted. The contamination cleanup includes the chat piles, drainage into Tar Creek, underground mines, polluted wells, and abandoned containment ponds. Once the land is bought-out it reverts back to the Quapaw Tribe who cannot use it due to contamination. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is currently evaluating a request to sell the vast amounts of chat (Figure 5) to construction companies who can integrate it into asphalt effectively sequestering the contaminants. The funds raised would be used towards the remaining remediation not covered by the EPA. The long term health consequences are difficult to assess because the majority of the population has abandoned the town. The original companies who polluted the land are now defunct or bankrupt.

10 Future efforts include more diversions and dikes to limit runoff, capped mines and wells, removal of chat, and frequent environmental tests to evaluate progress. The Superfund has been on the National Priority List since 1983 and there is currently no scheduled date for clean-up completion.

Figure 5. Mounds of chat litter the landscape around Picher, OK (Myers, 2007).

11 Bibliography Andrews, W.J., J.R.Masoner. 2011: Changes in Selected Metals Concentrations from the Mid-1980s to the Mid-2000s in a Stream Draining the Picher Mining District of Oklahoma Open Environmental & Biological Monitoring Journal. 2011, Vol. 4, p36-44. 9p. EPA, 2013: Current Status: Tar Creek (Ottawa County) Oklahoma. Retrieved October 30th, 2013 from https://www.eps.gov/region6/6sf/pdffiles/tar-creek-ok.pdf Everett, D. 2013: Tri-State Lead and Zinc District. Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Retrieved November 23rd 2013 from http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/T/TR014.html Gillham, O. 2007: Picher buyout provides escape: Residents of the Tar Creek Superfund site finally have someone willing to purchase their homes, enabling them to move out of the polluted area. Tulsa World. May 28, 2007. Hamilton, A. 2005: Oklahoma Superfund town withers. The Dallas Morning News. October 31st 2005. Kaplan, S., S. Snell, M. Berlin, B. Harwood. 2010: Sapping the Superfunds Strength. Nation. 5/3/2010, Vol. 290 Issue 17, p23-25. 3p. Myers, M. 2013: Tar Creek Film. Jump the Fence Productions. Images Retrieved November 1st 2013 from http://www.tarcreekfilm.com/blog/wpcontent/uploads/2010/06/Tar-Creek.jpg Neuberger, J.S., S.C. Hu, K.D. Drake, R. Jim. 2009: Potential health impacts of heavymetal exposure at the Tar Creek Superfund site, Ottawa County, Oklahoma. Environmental Geochemistry & Health. Mar 2009, Vol. 31 Issue 1, p47-59. 13p.

12 Nieberding, V. 1983. The History of Ottawa County. Marceline, MO: Walsworth Publishing Co. Paynter, B. 2010: Welcome to Armageddon, USA: A Tour of Americas Most Toxic Town. Wired Magazine , Sep 2010, Vol. 18 Issue 9, p152-1, 1p Schafer, S. 2002: Tar Creeks Legacy a Heavy Burden. Tulsa World. December 29th Roosevelt, M. 2004: The tragedy of Tar Creek. Time. 4/26/2004, Vol. 163 Issue 17, p4247. 4p. Shriver, T.E., G.K. Kennedy 2005: Contested environmental hazards and community conflict over resolution. Rural Sociology. Dec2005, Vol. 70 Issue 4, p491-513. 23p. Zota, A.R.,L.A. Schaider, A.S. Ettinger, R.O. Wright, J.P. Shine, J.D. Spengler 2011: Metal sources and exposures in the homes of young children living near a miningimpacted Superfund site. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology. Sep/Oct 2011, Vol. 21 Issue 5, p495-505. 11p.