By Roger McKinney
rmckinney@joplinglobe.com
What is being termed the nation’s largest environmental bankruptcy settlement will result in nearly $91 million, plus interest, to benefit environmental cleanup efforts in the former Tri-State Mining District.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that $1.79 billion has been paid under a bankruptcy reorganization of American Smelting and Refining Co., or Asarco. The money will be used for environmental cleanups at more than 80 sites in 19 states.
Asarco, based in Arizona, is a leading producer of copper and one of the largest metal producers in the U.S. It is responsible for sites around the country that are contaminated with hazardous waste, according to an EPA news release.
The company has operated as Federal Mining and Smelting Co. at Picher, Okla., and also operated smelting operations in Southwest Missouri and Southeast Kansas.
The former Tri-State Mining District covers about 2,500 square miles in Northeast Oklahoma, Southeast Kansas and Southwest Missouri. Many locations are contaminated with decades of waste from mining and smelting operations that began in the 1800s and continued into the 1970s.
Here is the breakdown of the settlement funding for the former Tri-State Mining District, according to the EPA:
n Tar Creek Superfund Site, Ottawa County, Okla., $32.7 million. With interest, the total is $38.5 million. About 30,000 people live in the 40-square-mile Superfund site.
n Cherokee County, Kan., $25 million. The total with interest comes to $29.5 million. About 115 square miles of the former mining district are in Cherokee County.
n Oronogo-Duenweg Mining Belt Superfund Site, Jasper County, $21.4 million. The total with interest is about $25.2 million. Soil, groundwater and surface water are contaminated with lead, zinc and cadmium, based on sample results.
n Newton County Mine Tailings, $11.5 million. The total with interest is $13.5 million. About 1,800 homes on the site rely on individual private water wells.
Chris Whitley, spokesman for the EPA’s Region 7, which includes Kansas and Missouri, said the money can go toward paying for cleanup and restoration work already completed, or for future work. He said the EPA also can combine it with federal stimulus money that has been approved.
He said the money cannot be used for buyouts like that in Picher, Okla., and proposed for Treece, Kan.
“We can’t call it a windfall, because it’s something we’ve worked for,” Whitley said. “It will make a difference. In some cases, it’s going to let us accelerate our work considerably.”
He said cleanup work is under way in various stages at all of the sites designated for the funding in the Tri-State Mining District.
The settlement talks began in 2005, when Asarco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Whitley said.
“This settlement exemplifies government at all levels working effectively for the American taxpayer to recover damages from polluters, and restore and protect important national landscapes and significant wildlife resources that have been injured,” said Tom Strickland, assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior, in a news release announcing the settlement.
Combined effort
The settlement effort involved the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the Agriculture Department.
