Meanwhile, I visited one of the most polluted towns in America last weekend (PICS: dialup warning)

[derby378]

Most of you who cover environmental issues on a regular basis are probably familiar with the ghost town of Picher in northeastern Oklahoma and its tragic legacy of mining waste, groundwater contamination, sinkholes, massive toxic chat piles, and the skeletal remains of a mining town that was once 14,000 strong.

I visited Picher last weekend - I visit ghost towns, after all - and here's a sample of what the Federal government and that tornado in 2008 haven't knocked down yet:













Picher is now the epicenter of the Tar Creek Superfund site, considered one of the most toxic superfund sites in America. The municipality has been officially dissolved, but there's still a handful of diehards who refuse to leave. Less than 20 people are left, including a pharmacist who has vowed to keep his shop in downtown Picher open as long as someone remains in the town.

The soil is hopelessly polluted, nearby Tar Creek has been choked to death with poison, and sinkholes have started swallowing houses and buildings. Highway 69 runs right through Picher, but nobody stops here anymore. If you wind up with a flat tire on this wasteland, you simply limp southward until you reach Commerce or Miami if you know what's good for you. And yet I came here to snap pictures of what little is left of Picher before the government finally knocks it all down and lets reclamation start in earnest.

I've also recorded some ambient sound at Picher and worked it into another Mixcloud performance, hope you enjoy it:

http://www.mixcloud.com/derby378/ghost-town-essay-3-picher-oklahoma/

[MrScorpio]

1. Checking it out nt

[derby378]

2. Thank you!

[MrScorpio]

3. You bet

We Mixclouders need to stick together. I gave you a like for my Tumblr and a tweet as well.

[derby378]

5. You are too kind

[Jefferson23]

4. K&R

[derby378]

6. Agreed

The holdouts are understandably wary - haven't seen any of them, but I did run into some tribal police who told me about some of the mischief these folks have endured from vandals and burglars.

[Jefferson23]

8. It's too sad..words fail. Thank you for documenting it. n/t

[LiberalEsto]

7. Too bad the U.S. can't build a prison here

and sentence the company executives to serve time in it.

[derby378]

10. I hear you

The mining took place from 1917 until 1947. Anyone responsible for the mess is probably dead by now; I think the company went out of business a long time ago, leaving the government - and ultimately the Quapaw tribe - holding the bag.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. Greatest Page for this important, and sad story. Thank you, my dear derby378...n/t

[2naSalit]

11. So

what was mined there? And what was the major toxin that rendered it unlivable?

[derby378]

12. Lead and zinc were mined there for 30 years

Lead wound up in the municipal water supply, and this cause a lot of the kids in town to develop learning disabilities. Miscarriages at Picher also shot up to two and a half times the national average.

I think cadmium has also been found in the chat piles and the aquifer. There's also zinc, which is a nutrient in small amounts but toxic at the levels found in Picher.

The 2008 tornado smashed into some of the chat piles and scattered the contamination even more extensively throughout the town. There's also a lot of contamination from thousands of mine tunnels underneath Picher which have filled with water and brought all that poison up to the surface, then created a bunch of sinkholes. Even if the soil ever got decontaminated, the ground is simply too unstable. It's a wasteland now.

[TheCowsCameHome]

13. A real Tea Party heaven.

All of America could look like that, if they have their way.

[blkmusclmachine]

15. You betcha. For Jeezus. And "Freedumb"

[ErikJ]

14. Google map very interesting-

It was the center of some kind of mining activity. All surrounding lands untouched. Street view shows giant chat piles.

[another_liberal]

16. The abandoned High school and its mascot statue are particularly evocative.

It looks as if someone has recently repainted the mascot and its pedestal.

[derby378]

17. I got the sense that the children were the hardest hit

Kids who are still in primary school appear to be most susceptible to lead neurotoxicity, but if lead is in your drinking water and in those chat piles you've been sledding down, it's pretty hard to avoid it.

[another_liberal]

18. The heirs of those who profited from that mining should be made to pay.

That money belongs to the people whose lives were ruined by corporate carelessness.