Health and Environmental Hazards in The Tar Creek Region
"Dry" and "wet" methods were used to extract pure lead from ore. Dry methods produced chat piles, and wet methods required tailing ponds to process ore into a usable product (see Chat (mining) and Tailings). An estimate cited in the Oklahoma Plan for Tar Creek claimed around 75 million tons of chat piles exist, while the exact amount of tailings is unknown. Chat piles are simply large mounds of mining waste. It was not uncommon for children in the area to play around the chat piles, such as riding bikes up and down the large piles or swimming in contaminated waters. Some of the piles were even used for track practice.
Lead poisoning is especially hazardous to children under six years of age. High levels of lead at this age can produce lifelong problems associated with impaired neurological development. A 1996 study showed 35% of children ages 1–5 had blood lead concentrations above the threshold considered dangerous by Federal Standards (more recent reports show this number to be lower). Furthermore, the miscarriage rate in the area is 24%, compared to the national average of 10%. Empty mines also present a more immediate danger due to mine collapses. One collapse in 1967 took nine homes.
Lead can also have marked environmental impacts, especially in aquatic systems. Water from the region eventually drains into the Grand Lake o' the Cherokees. This has led to raised levels of lead in the lake, and there is currently an advisory to limit the number of fish consumed by fishermen in the area.
Read more about this topic: Tar Creek Superfund Site
Famous quotes containing the words health, tar, creek and/or region:
“We have to give ourselves—men in particular—permission to really be with and get to know our children. The premise is that taking care of kids can be a pain in the ass, and it is frustrating and agonizing, but also gratifying and enjoyable. When a little kid says, “I love you, Daddy,” or cries and you comfort her or him, life becomes a richer experience.”
—Anonymous Father. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 3 (1978)
“The mob is man voluntarily descending to the nature of the beast. Its fit hour of activity is night. Its actions are insane like its whole constitution. It persecutes a principle; it would whip a right; it would tar and feather justice, by inflicting fire and outrage upon the houses and persons of those who have these. It resembles the prank of boys, who run with fire-engines to put out the ruddy aurora streaming to the stars.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The only law was that enforced by the Creek Lighthorsemen and the U.S. deputy marshals who paid rare and brief visits; or the “two volumes of common law” that every man carried strapped to his thighs.”
—State of Oklahoma, U.S. relief program (1935-1943)
“America lives in the heart of every man everywhere who wishes to find a region where he will be free to work out his destiny as he chooses.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)