EPA gets OK to move Treece, Kansas residents from polluted town

[ensho]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/76033.html


Residents of Treece moved a step closer to being moved out of their lead-polluted town Thursday when the U.S. Senate approved an amendment to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to buy out and shut down the community.

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It calls on the EPA to "consider all appropriate criteria, including cost-effectiveness" relating to the buyout and relocation of Treece residents because of health risks posed by chat.

Chat is lead- and zinc-contaminated mining waste, millions of tons of which are piled up on hundreds of acres in and around Treece.
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the sooner the better

and yellow crime scene tape and HAZMAT tape should be put around the whole toxic mess.

[MineralMan]

1. Lead mining has a very long history in that area.

Way longer than the regulations existed to control the hazards. Sadly, by the time such regs were in place, the area was about mined out. Bad business all around, but lead mining is necessary. We use a lot of it. We just need to do it safely.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

2. Do you ever wonder just how many more places are out there

that don't realize what's in the ground, water and air around them?
My brother used to work for Conrail at the Sam Rea Shops and once they closed the facility, they discovered large amounts of buried hazardous waste on the property. My brother and the other forklift operators were ordered to do this at night so nobody would know. Of course they were never told what it was except that if they didn't like it, there were plenty of people looking for jobs in the area.

He and 6 or 7 other forklift operators have since developed kidney cysts and or cancer of the kidneys.

When you realize how many companies were doing this either legally or otherwise, I'm surprised that more towns haven't been contaminated. Of course, as time goes on I'm sure that they'll continue to find more and more of these types of things.

Why am I thinking about Midnight Oil and the song "Blue Sky Mine"?

[ensho]

3. yes, that crime scene/HAZMAT tape should be used more

nt

[Autumn]

4. I was born in Picher and

spent a lot of time in Treece. I remember playing on the chat piles all the time. What a shame.