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/.

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