EPA plans to monitor toxic town

Part of Picher's legacy will be its toxicity.

"In 100 years, where is that (mine) water going to go?” resident David Ray said. "It eventually will get into Grand Lake, and it eventually will get into the aquifer. Water has a mind of its own. It simply goes.”

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will continue working in Picher, at the Tar Creek Superfund Site, for at least another 30 years, said John Meyer, the agency's remedial site project manager. So far, the agency has spent at least $150 million on cleanup at Tar Creek. Another $167 million is planned.

That money will go toward clearing out the mountains of toxic mine tailings, since the agency has done tests that say it's safe to turn the gravel into material that's used in road construction.

People who own the lead-laced gravel, many of them Quapaw Indians, will get money as they sell it to asphalt companies, Meyer said. All of the mountains must be gone in 30 years, Meyer said, but the work will be far from finished then.

The EPA plans to test the soil in streams from Kansas to Grand Lake, looking for heavy metals, and seeing if fish and other aquatic organisms can survive (or if they've been able to since the mines closed). If the water it's found too toxic for aquatic life, the agency may dredge the river beds to take out the toxic metals.

Or it might simply leave things alone, Meyer said, since over time, nature might be able to fix things on its own.

MAY 12, 2008