Inhofe: EPA to Fund Buyout
By Jim Myers, Tulsa World, Okla.
Feb. 22–The senator says the agency will complete the buyout of Tar Creek residents.
WASHINGTON — 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.
Expected to be officially released Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency, the plan grew out of a provision the Oklahoma Republican inserted in a major water resources law last year.
“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.”
After signing on to the idea of a buyout at one of the nation’s oldest and biggest Superfund sites, Inhofe has been securing funding for the massive project by redirecting funds from cleanup efforts and earmarking other resources for
the buyout.
EPA’s revised remedy is expected to do away with the need for the senator to go back each year for more money and allow the agency to fund the relocations.
Last year, as additional money was held up because of a prolonged effort to pass annual spending bills in Congress, buyout offers at Tar Creek ceased.
Such issues presumably would be avoided under EPA’s new approach.
Gov. Brad Henry praised the development.
“This is more good news for the people in the Picher and Cardin areas,” Henry said. “We know we still have a long road ahead, but this certainly makes the light at the end of the tunnel significantly brighter.”
Calling the process up to this point “long and difficult,” the governor also warned of future challenges.
“But we are doing the right thing in delivering relief to the families in the Tar Creek area,” he said.
Richard Greene, EPA’s regional administrator, said he was pleased to be part of this “monumental occasion.”
“This master plan will ensure a coordinated commitment to permanently clean up the Tar Creek Superfund site,” Greene said.
“This announcement reaffirms years of hard work by local, tribal, state and federal partners.”
He called Inhofe a longtime champion for the communities and said the senator was instrumental in bringing about what he called “this final cleanup plan.”
Inhofe in turn shared the credit with Greene, the governor and U.S. Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., and the Lead Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust, which is overseeing the buyout.
The Superfund site in far northeastern Oklahoma has about 620 homes.
Funding already in the pipeline was expected to be enough to cover almost two- thirds of the total buyout.
Inhofe said EPA’s plan also addresses another key component in the continued sale of chat.
“Nearly 100 years of mining in the Tar Creek Superfund site produced millions of tons of mine waste known as chat,” he said. “However, we also know that chat can be a resource.”
Inhofe said he included a provision in a huge transportation bill in 2005 directing the EPA to develop rules on the use of chat in construction projects.
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Jim Myers (202) 484-1424 jim.myers@tulsaworld.com
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