EPA stalls lead residue removal plan

By Sheila Stogsdill

Published: July 27, 2007

QUAPAW — The cancellation of a federally funded air-monitoring program at Tar Creek has raised the ire of Quapaw tribal members.

Funding by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was shut down for the monitoring program. That led the Bureau of Indian Affairs to halt removal of lead-contaminated mining residue — also known as chat — from Indian land, said John Berrey, Quapaw Tribe chairman.

The program was designed to remove mountains of chat from the Quapaw Indian lands in the Tar Creek Superfund site in north Ottawa County. The chat accumulated from decades of zinc and lead mining in the area.

Berry said air-monitoring stations were located where chat is being sold or removed. The chat was being sold and removed for uses the EPA determined to be environmentally safe, including asphalt for roads and highways, he said.

The chat sales program would have eliminated much of the chat at Tar Creek within a few years, and at the same time pay chat owners, he said.

The EPA provided $175,000 from May 2006 to May 2007 for the air-monitoring program, said Sam Coleman, EPA Superfund Division director.

"This year, the Quapaw Tribe requested more money above what they requested last year, and we didn't have the funding in our budget,” Coleman said.

Coleman explained the agency has funds set aside for specific problems. In 2006, the agency agreed to help the tribe with the stipulation that the tribe obtain additional funding, he said.

Berrey disagrees, saying the tribe provided $80,000 to pay for manpower to operate the air monitoring stations.

"He (Coleman) promised they would solely fund the project,” Berrey said.

The Indian chat sales program was a "model market-based remedy” for Superfund sites, he said.

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