Pollution an enduring legacy at old ICBM sites

October 10, 2009 - As U.S. Air Force officials marked the 50th anniversary of the deployment of nuclear missiles to sites in the rural United States this past week, residents in some of these communities are still grappling with another legacy — groundwater pollution from chemicals used to clean and maintain the weapons.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is identifying and cleaning up dozens of former nuclear missile sites in nine states.

he ICBM sites include 14 in Kansas, 10 in Nebraska, seven in Wyoming, seven in Colorado and two in Oklahoma. California, New Mexico, New York and Texas have one contaminated ICBM site each.

TCE may have polluted many more missile sites than the corps is aware.

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Meth lab pollution haunts Oklahoma homebuyers

August 2, 2009 - Darla Hugaboom’s home on five acres north of Arcadia is spacious, clean, quiet and safe. But it came with a dirty past.

Police raided the house in 2004 and arrested the then-owner on drug complaints. They found more than 440 pounds of chemicals used to make methamphetamine and a once beautiful home in a filthy state of neglect.

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Wake for Toxic Town in Oklahoma

June 30, 2009 - Former residents of Picher, Oklahoma gathered together to say farewell to their town where kids suffered lead poisoning, homes that were built atop underground mines plunged into the Earth and where the local creek coughs up orange water, laced with heavy metals.

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Oklahoma residents find life after Tar Creek

July 20, 2008 -

It's been three years since Marlus Kimbrough took advantage of a state-sponsored buyout for families who lived near the Tar Creek Superfund site in Ottawa County in far northeastern Oklahoma.

Now, Kimbrough and her children have a new life far away from their former home in Picher, a former mining town polluted by towering piles of gravel and abandoned lead mines.

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Picher tornado victims given priority in EPA buyout

May 21, 2008 - PICHER, Okla. — The addition of $8 million from the Environmental Protection Agency for the government buyout of Picher should be enough to relocate all of the dozens of residents whose homes were destroyed in the May 10 tornado, officials said Wednesday.

U.S. Sen. James Inhofe said in a statement Tuesday, “I have been assured by Governor (Brad) Henry and the buyout trust (Lead Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust) that these tornado victims will be moved to the top of the buyout list.”

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Toxic Town: Picher Oklahoma

May 9, 2008 - People are leaving, escaping the reality of life in one of the worst environmental nightmares in the country. A voluntary federal buyout is hastening the exodus.

Picher's mines closed around 1970; the wounds they inflicted on the people and land never healed.

It is the center of the Tar Creek Superfund site, a 40-square-mile area that also takes in portions of Missouri and Kansas.

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EPA to fund buyout of residents near Tar Creek Superfund site in Oklahoma

February 22, 2008 - U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe revealed a landmark remediation plan Thursday that will provide an automatic funding source to complete the ongoing federal buyout at the Tar Creek Superfund site.

"This announcement marks landmark progress for the people living in the area of the Tar Creek Superfund site," Inhofe said.

"The EPA's latest remediation plan not only addresses necessary cleanup of soil and water contamination from chat piles and wastes at the site, it also announces the completion of voluntary relocation assistance for the residents living in the Tar Creek communities."

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Federal funding dwindles quickly for Oklahoma residents being bought out of Superfund site

December 3, 2007 - Ella Alsbury is both lucky and unlucky when it comes to her chances of moving out of the Tar Creek Superfund site.

She is lucky because her name is listed among those most qualified for a federal buyout of devalued homes.

She is unlucky because the federal buyout money is expected to run out just before it gets to her name. The relocation committee overseeing the $50 million buyout has only about $18.8 million on hand. The committee needs about $30 million more to fully fund the relocation.

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PBS to air documentary on life in a Superfund site

November 20, 2007 - In the film, they visit Picher’s local school to talk with students about an uncertain future. They visit homes where the lifelong residents reaffirm that nothing will make them leave.

They talk with people who have been pushing for a buyout plan now that their plots are virtually valueless. They also show the people wedged between concern for the lives of loved ones and love of home and their way of life.

“The Creek Runs Red” shows pieces of those ordinary lives in extraordinary circumstances.

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Tar Creek Pollution Affects Three States and Now Possibly Grand Lake

May 18, 2007 - Pollution of the Tar Creek watershed is so widespread that it affects three states and possibly Grand Lake, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said Thursday during a public conference.

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Money May Run Out for Buyback of Contaminated Homes in Oklahoma

May 10, 2007 - OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A state official says he's concerned money will run out for the federal buyout of homes in the Tar Creek Superfund site in northeastern Oklahoma. The area is contaminated after decades of lead and zinc mining and many buildings are in danger of collapsing into the underground mines.

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Was Your New Home A Meth Lab?

May 7, 2007 - Meth labs can cause problems even after they’ve been cleared out of a home, apartment, motel room, etc. This is because toxic particles are released into the air during the cooking process, and those particles get embedded in walls, carpets, air vents, ceiling fans, practically everything in a home. As a result, anyone living in a home that was a former meth lab can suffer serious health consequences. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to tell if your new home has been contaminated by meth lab activity. But there are a few things you can do to determine if a home or apartment is a former meth lab site.

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Residents at Tar Creek Superfund Site told that appraisals halted after values of homes appeared to be too low

April 10, 2007
PICHER, Okla. — Residents living in the Tar Creek Superfund Site were told Monday that new appraisals were halted after values on some homes appeared to be too low.

About 200 people filled the Picher-Cardin High School Commons for a meeting of the Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust, after word of the numbers spread throughout the Ottawa County community over the weekend. More . . .