Tar Creek Superfund Site - Remediation Efforts

Remediation Efforts

Since the passage of CERCLA, numerous remediation efforts have occurred in the area. The Oklahoma Plan for Tar Creek has listed four main objectives in the process; improving surface water quality, reducing exposure to lead dust, attenuating mine hazards, and land reclamation.

To improve water quality, the University of Oklahoma has implemented a 1.2 million dollar passive water treatment system. This system uses gravity and renewable energy to flow water through a filtration system, composing of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria treatments, and periodic oxidation of treated waters. This project has shown to greatly reduce the presence of dangerous heavy metals in treated waters.

To reduce the exposure to lead dust, the Oklahoma plan for Tar Creek calls to reduce exposure by paving over chat roads, and otherwise encapsulating chat to avoid airborne lead dust. One of the objectives of this plan is to determine the maximum amount of chat that can be mixed with asphalt while minimizing the risk of exposure. A chat and asphalt mixture may also be used to fill mines, which will reduce the threat of mine hazards, namely the collapse of mines and/or the exposure to lead due to open or collapsed mines.

Finally, the plan calls for the restoration of the land damaged by mining activities. After the direct threat of lead in chat piles is addressed, land will then be revegetated or removed and replaced by new soil. One 2011 estimate claims an additional 3.2 million dollars will be sufficient to remediate the more than 400 mining sites remaining in the area.