xvEPA United States Environmental Protection Agency March 2006 EPA530-F-06-005 www.epa.gov/osw Beneficial Uses For Chat Proposed The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is encouraging the safe and beneficial use of chat from the Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas Tri-state mining district. Beneficially using chat will reduce the current health and environmental hazards posed by existing surface-level chat piles. Action EPA is proposing criteria for the beneficial use of chat from the Tri-state mining district in transportation construction projects and in non-transportation, non- residential concrete and cement projects. EPA believes the proposed uses of chat are protective of human health and the environment. The proposed criteria involve safely encapsulating chat particles in asphalt or cement and concrete. Chat is a gravel-like waste created from lead and zinc mining activities in the Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri Tri-state district between the late 1800s and mid 1900s. Currently about 100 million tons of chat contaminated with lead, zinc and cadmium are stored in piles in the Tri-state mining district. The district covers approximately 2,500 square miles and includes parts of Ottawa County, Oklahoma; Cherokee County, Kansas; and Jasper and Newton Counties, Missouri and includes four Superfund National Priority List (NPL) sites: Cherokee County, Tar Creek (Ottawa County), Newton County Mine and the Oronogo-Duenweg Mining Belt. Beneficially using chat according to the proposed criteria will both reduce chat piles and improve human health and the environment in the Tri-state area. EPA is proposing these criteria in response to the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005. For More Information Please visit us on the Web at: www.epa.gov/epaoswer/other/mining/chat/. ------- |