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Tar Creek News

Cardin population drops to zero as buyout completed November 17, 2010 | Comment on this article

CARDIN - On Tuesday as Kim Kuester drove to her Cardin home for the last time, she remembered the words she spoke so often as a teenager growing up in Miami. Read More

Filmmakers tackle subject of Tar Creek October 10, 2010 The Tar Creek Superfund site in northeastern Oklahoma has become a topic of many films and books. Read More

Children the worst victims of lead poisoning October 10, 2010 Developmental delays, anemia and irreversible neurological and kidney damage are a few of the health problems for children exposed to high levels of lead and heavy metals associated with some Superfund sites. Read More

Family struggles to cope in aftermath of Tar Creek

October 10, 2010 A family struggles through lead poisoning, a botched home buyout, and crushing A family struggles through lead poisoning, a botched home buyout, and crushing misfortune in the wake of the Tar Creek Superfund site. Read More

Superfund stigma often a hindrance for development

October 10, 2010 Superfund sites often face problems with redevelopment. Read More

Superfund sites grow as money dwindles

October 10, 2010 Nationally, 23 sites were added to the Superfund list of the most hazardous contaminated sites. Only eight were cleared. Funding has has fallen since the end of a tax on energy companies. Read More

Cleanup is slow process for Oklahoma sites

October 10, 2010 ARDMORE — The backhoes and the white Environmental Protection Agency mobile home are gone. For the most part, the Imperial Refinery Company Superfund site in Ardmore is quiet now. Though it is still on the National Priorities List, the Imperial Refinery site has reached the “construction complete”... Read More

Tar Creek trust violated meeting act, Oklahoma high court rules

June 23, 2010 The state Supreme Court said the trust involved in the federal relocation plan for residents of Tar Creek should not have allowed appraisers and the state's secretary of the environment in a closed meeting. Read More

Tar Creek settlement approved June 23, 2010 Special board approves $366,282 settlement to two companies that did demolition and cleanup work at the EPA Superfund site. Work was halted when it was determined the trust overseeing the work made a technical Open Meeting Act violation. Read More

Tar Creek trust ruling has contractors at odds May 07, 2010 The owner of a demolition business said Thursday he__8217__s not sure if he will submit a second bid on a project after a ruling found members of a Tar Creek trust had violated the state__8217__s Open Meeting Act. Rogers County District Judge Dwayne Steidley ruled Wednesday the Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation... Read More

Tar Creek buyouts create ghost town March 14, 2010 PICHER — As the final residents prepare to move out of Picher, vandals move in with little fear of police, an official said. Picher is a former mining town at the center of the Tar Creek Superfund site, a 40-square-mile area polluted by decades of lead and zinc mining. An Army Corps of Engineering study in... Read More

Picher's city offices to close today September 01, 2009 PICHER, Okla. (AP) — City offices in the mining-scarred town of Picher are set to close Tuesday, as most of the final few-dozen residents left make plans to leave the blighted area. Shuttering City Hall will mostly be a formality, since the northeastern Oklahoma town has been fading for months. The schools... Read More

Some of Picher’s holdouts concede it’s time to move on August 01, 2009 PICHER — Two years ago, Orval "Hoppy” Ray vowed it would take someone meaner than him to make him leave the town where he was born. But now the crusty, 84-year-old former miner is moving out, leaving behind a blighted, ghostly landscape, its soil, water and air poisoned by generations of lead-ore... Read More

Sen. Jim Inhofe has Picher's stimulus funds frozen July 09, 2009 TULSA — U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma says he has placed a hold on federal stimulus funds directed toward a housing authority in Picher, a fading mining town located in a Superfund area. State and federal buyouts of Picher residents in recent years have dwindled its population. The town is part of a... Read More

In school auction, who’ll catch Picher gorilla statue? June 10, 2009 PICHER — A concrete statue of the high school mascot is among the thousands of items from the Picher-Cardin School District that will be auctioned on Sunday. The 90-year-old school district graduated its final class of seniors in May, and it now will be absorbed by the Commerce and Quapaw districts. Trophies,... Read More

Concrete gorilla statue to be auctioned Sunday at Picher school

June 09, 2009 PICHER -- A concrete statue of the school mascot is among the thousands of items from the Picher-Cardin School District that will be auctioned on Sunday. The 90-year-old school district graduated its final class of seniors last month and will be absorbed by the Commerce and Quapaw districts. Trophies, lockers,... Read More

Picher tornado accelerated plans to board up Superfund site May 10, 2009 PICHER — One year after a tornado ripped through Picher, destroying one-third of an already dwindling Tar Creek community, a town official said there will be no memorial service or marker remembering the seven people who died that day. "Most people are just trying to go on and put it behind them as... Read More

Historic building in Picher collapses May 04, 2009 PICHER – A decades-old building that was part of the original mining community partially collapsed overnight, city officials said this morning. The collapse was apparently not related to any old mining activities or weather problems but simply due to the age of the building, a spokeswoman at city hall said.... Read More

Final graduation set for Picher-Cardin schools April 24, 2009 TULSA — Picher-Cardin Schools will graduate a final class of 11 next month, as the last residents leave an area of northeastern Oklahoma ravaged by decades of lead and zinc mining and a deadly tornado. There are only 49 students left in grades three through 12, whittled from several hundred a few years ago. In... Read More

Tar Creek community of Cardin to close down

April 17, 2009 PICHER - The community of Cardin is expected to be the first town in the Tar Creek Superfund site to close down. The water is expected to be shut off in about a month, said Larry Roberts, Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust operations manager. “There are seven occupied residences at this... Read More