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Fact Sheet
August 2009
EPA to Add Air Monitoring Stations, Cherokee County Superfund Site, Cherokee County, Kansas, Treece Subsite
INTRODUCTION
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working in the Treece community and throughout Cherokee County to address the impacts from historic mining practices in the area. During a recent Treece tour and listening session, community members shared concerns about air quality and requested that additional air monitoring be conducted to determine impacts from the ongoing construction projects.
As a result of this request, EPA will be placing air monitors within the community in September. These monitors will be used to capture air particulates (including lead-dust particles) through a filtering process followed by an evaluation of the measured results. These results will form the basis of a summary report that describes air concentration results from each monitor. The results will then be placed on EPA's website for the public to view, along with historic air monitoring data from the Treece area, as well as other Cherokee County subsites.
Results from historic air monitors did not show any levels above the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), which is why air monitoring was discontinued years ago.
BACKGROUND
The Cherokee County Superfund Site spans 115 square miles and represents the Kansas portion of the former Tri-State mining district. The historic mining district encompasses 2,500 square miles in southeast Kansas, northeast Oklahoma, and southwest Missouri.
Because of the large geographic area of mining in Kansas, the site has been divided into seven subsites to manage cleanups. The subsites are identified as Galena, Baxter Springs, Treece, Badger, Lawton, Waco, and Crestline. These seven subsites correspond to the areas where most of the mining occurred within the site and where physical surface disturbances were present.
EPA has removed lead-contaminated soil (resulting from mine waste) at every impacted residential property in the city of Treece, and continues to make environmental progress throughout Cherokee County. This progress is evidenced by the cleanup of 700 residential properties and more than 1,200 acres of non residential mining wastes.
A Record of Decision (ROD), which is the formal document that outlines EPA's selected remedy at a site was signed for Baxter Springs and Treece in 1997 and amended in 2006 (to add the chat pile cleanup work). This document and other site-related information can be viewed during normal business hours at the following locations:
Johnston Public Library
210 West 10th Street
Baxter Springs, Kansas
EPA Region 7 Records Center
901 N. Fifth Street
Kansas City, Kansas
If you have questions or need additional information, please contact:
Debbie Kring
Community Involvement Coordinator
Office of Public Affairs
U.S. EPA – Region 7
901 N. Fifth Street
Kansas City, Kansas 66101
Toll-Free: 1-800-223-0425
Kring.debbie@epa.gov
OR
Dave Drake
Project Manager
Superfund Division
Special Emphasis Branch
U.S. EPA – Region 7
901 N. Fifth Street
Kansas City, Kansas 66101
Toll-Free: 1-800-223-0425
Drake.dave@epa.gov