Picher was a booming mining town in the early 1900s. Lead and zinc from the area made bullets for both World Wars. People displaced by the tornado want to take with them the history of the mining years. OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVE
Picher timeline
1916: The first mine opens in the area.
1919: City of Picher established.
1948: Several mining companies shut down operations.
1967: Two homes were swallowed by a sink hole caused by an abandoned mine shaft.
1970: The last of the Eagle Picher Mining Co. operations close.
1980: Superfund legislation signed to clean up waste sites.
1983: Tar Creek was identified as one of the most contaminated sites in the United States.
2004: A buyout of families with young children begins.
2006: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers releases a report saying one-third of Picher's 400 homes sit on top of mine shafts and tunnels, and face risk of collapsing.
2006: A voluntary buyout of the remaining residents begins.
2008: An EF-4 tornado levels most of the town of Picher.
EARLY 1900s
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.”
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