As work proceeds on restoring the nearly 2,500-square-mile Tar Creek Superfund site in northeast Oklahoma, the Tar Creek Trustees are seeking comments from the public about their restoration plan and environmental assessment.
The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality said the Draft Phase 1 plan and assessment was written after seeking restoration ideas from the public in 20219.
Some of the submitted ideas have been developed into restoration alternatives that will restore, replace, rehabilitate, or acquire the equivalent of natural and cultural resource and their services lost or injured due to the release of hazardous substances at the Northeastern Oklahoma Mining Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Site. The total cost for the six preferred alternatives is $7,992,334.
The Draft Phase 1 RP/EA may be accessed in person at the Bureau of Indian Affairs office at 10 South Treaty Road in Miami, OK or online at: https://www.fws.gov/Tar Creek draft_Phase I_RPEA. Comments may be submitted by email to TarCreekNRDAR@fws.gov through February 9th, 2022. This notice is for an additional 30-day extension from the prior 30-day extension deadline of January 10th.
The site is located within the northeast Oklahoma section of the Tri-State Mining District, an area that covers more than 2,500 square miles and includes portions of southeast Kansas, southwest Missouri, and northeast Oklahoma. Significant portions of the site were and continue to be affected by releases of cadmium, lead, zinc, and other hazardous substances. The trustees intend to use a combination of on-site and off-site restoration actions to restore, replace, rehabilitate, and/or acquire the equivalent of the injured natural resources and associated services lost within the site.
The trustees include the U.S. Department of Interior through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs, Cherokee Nation, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma, Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Seneca-Cayuga Nation, Wyandotte Nation and the Office of the Oklahoma Secretary of Energy and the Environment.