Atlas of Contaminated Sites

Notable case, Picher, Ottawa County, Oklahoma, United States

Tar Creek (Picher)

The Oklahoma part of the Tri-State lead and zinc mining district: tailings piles up to 200 feet high, acid mine water in Tar Creek, and towns such as Picher emptied through a buyout.

Microbial bioremediation

Status
Remediation under way
Activity
1891–1970
Media
soil, groundwater, surface water, sediment
Kind of site
mining
National list
Listed 1983National Priorities List
  1. Area. The site has no defined boundary: it consists of the parts of Ottawa County affected by mining waste. The 2005 inventory counted 83 chat piles on 767 acres and 243 former pile bases on 2,079 acres.
  2. People affected. 628 residences, 74 businesses and 125 renters relocated under the buyout (EPA).

Contaminants

Metals

Other inorganics

National list

On the list (final)United States

Superfund National Priorities List (NPL)

Listed
1983
Official id
OKD980629844 ↗

The whole list (1,840) →

About this list

The list of contaminated sites that are national priorities for federal clean-up under CERCLA (Superfund, 1980), kept by EPA (40 CFR Part 300, Appendix B). Listing makes a site eligible for long-term remedial action paid by the Superfund; sites are proposed and then listed through Federal Register notices, and deleted when no further response is needed.

Includes federal facilities (Defense, Energy). Dates are the years of the Federal Register notices (final listing, deletion); 'listed' is empty for proposed sites. Some sites still on the list have had partial deletions. Contaminants and media: contaminants of concern from decision documents (RODs, ROD amendments, ESDs; EPA, fiscal years 1981-2024, SEMS document HQ/406315); for sites with no decision document (mostly proposed or recently listed) the contaminants are those EPA records for the site (FOIA-015, document HQ/406366), with no medium. 'Deleted' means EPA found no further response needed, which can include land-use controls still in force.

Status

Remediation under way

Cleanup proceeds in phases; the 2008 plan for the mining waste foresees about 30 years of work, much of it carried out by the Quapaw Nation and the State of Oklahoma. Risk from sediment and surface water (OU5) is still being assessed.

Story

The first mines in Ottawa County date from 1891; after the 1914 discovery near Picher, zinc and lead mining expanded quickly and peaked around 1925. Most operations stopped in 1958 and the last significant production was in 1970. About 181 million tons of crude ore came from the Oklahoma side.

What remained were piles of mill tailings, known locally as chat, up to 200 feet high, and ponds of fine tailings. Acid water from the flooded mines surfaces into Tar Creek and, through abandoned wells, threatens the Roubidoux aquifer used for drinking water. In 1994 Indian Health Service tests found that about 35% of the Native children tested had more than 10 µg/dL of lead in their blood.

Since 1995 EPA has replaced soil in yards and public areas (2,940 properties by 2015). The 2008 plan included a voluntary buyout in Picher and Cardin (Oklahoma) and Treece (Kansas), completed in 2011: 628 residences, 74 businesses and 125 renters relocated. The Quapaw Nation carries out part of the cleanup on its own land, starting with the Catholic 40, where it removed about 107,000 tons of chat.

Timeline

  1. 1891First mines in Ottawa County.
  2. 1914Ore discovery at Picher.
  3. 1970Last significant mine production.
  4. 1980The governor sets up the Tar Creek Task Force on mine drainage.
  5. 1983Placed on the National Priorities List.
  6. 1995Residential soil replacement begins.
  7. 2008Plan for the mining waste (OU4) with voluntary buyout; the Mayer Ranch passive treatment system is completed.
  8. 2011Relocation of the residents of Picher, Cardin and Treece completed.
  9. 2013The Quapaw Nation starts removing chat from the Catholic 40; Picher is disincorporated.

Health

In 1994 about 35% of the Native children tested by the Indian Health Service had blood lead above 10 µg/dL, the CDC level of concern at the time (EPA).

Remediation

  1. 1986surface-water diversionDikes and diversions to cut surface-water inflow to three mine shafts and so the outflow of acid mine water to Tar Creek (OU1).
  2. 1995soil replacementExcavation and replacement of soil in yards and public areas: 2,940 properties by 2015.
  3. 2009relocationVoluntary buyout of homes in Picher, Cardin and Treece (2009–2011).
  4. 2013waste removalRemoval of chat piles, partly carried out by the Quapaw Nation.

Plants and fungi at this site

Microbial bioremediationField scale, 2008–

The Mayer Ranch passive treatment system in Commerce, run by the University of Oklahoma: a series of ponds and cells that treat mine discharges without power or reagents, relying in part on aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. A second system was built in south-east Commerce with the State of Oklahoma.

Outcome According to EPA the system improved water quality in Tar Creek downstream, addressing about 20% of the contaminant mass loading from the mine discharges (Nairn, 2012).

From the literature

Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.

Plants

Fungi

The rest are on the contaminant pages.

Sources

  1. Tar Creek (Ottawa County), OK – Cleanup Activities, US EPA, 2026
  2. Tar Creek Superfund site, Wikipedia, 2026

Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.