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APRIL 25, 2001

The Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma will be meeting with the Bureau of Indian Affairs on Thursday in hopes of having the agency lift a ban on the sale of mine waste.

Known as "chat," the waste is left over from mining operations in the Tar Creek basin. The Environmental Protection Agency considers Tar Creek a Superfund site and has spent more than $50 million to clean up the basin and replace lead-contaminated soil.

The BIA then put a ban on the sale of chat by Quapaw tribal members, who own up to 70 percent of the land in Tar Creek. The ban does not affect non-Indian sales, so the tribe feels it is unfair.

Chat can be used for driveway paving. Tribal members want to sell it and also say chat on their lands has been stolen.

Chat on Quapaw lands has been linked to high lead contamination in soil and blood-lead levels in children 10 times highter than the state average. The state Department of Environmental Quality bans the use of loose chat in driveways and areas where children might be exposed, but consider it safe when used for asphalt roads.

Get the Story:
BIA urged to lift chat sale ban (The Tulsa world 4/25)

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Quapaw want to sell waste (6/27)