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Fact Sheet
February 2012
EPA Announces a Public Availability Session to Share Information About Its Cleanup Schedule at the Newton County Mine Tailings Superfund Site, Newton County, Missouri
INTRODUCTION
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 signed its Record of Decision (ROD) in May 2010, which is a document that describes the Agency’s preferred alternative to address mine and mill waste in Operable Units 1 and 2 of the Newton County Mine Tailings Superfund Site (Site) located in Newton County, Missouri. The actions defined in the ROD include cleaning up mining and milling wastes, soil, and selected sediments contaminated with metals from historic lead and zinc mining, milling, and smelting operations in Newton County. The major components of the remedial action include:
- Removal of contaminated mining and milling wastes, soils, and intermittent tributary stream sediments;
- Disposal of the contaminated wastes, soils, and sediments in a central repository (to be constructed at the Site);
- Capping of the repository with an 18-inch soil cover;
- Recontouring the excavated areas to promote drainage;
- Revegetation of the excavated areas and the repository with native grasses;
- Monitoring Site streams for assessing the effect of cleanup; and
- Establishing institutional controls to restrict the future use of the disposal areas.
PUBLIC AVAILABILITY SESSION
EPA will hold a Public Availability Session to share information about its cleanup schedule in Newton County. Meeting information follows:
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Granby Annex Building
302 North Main Street
Granby, Missouri
EPA staff members will be available to discuss site activities and answer questions.
BACKGROUND
The Site is located in the northern half of Newton County, Missouri, and is part of the Tri-State Mining District which encompasses approximately 2,500 square miles of Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The Tri-State Mining District's historic lead and zinc production ranked as one of the highest in the world with total ore production and is estimated to have been slightly more than 500 million short tons. The Missouri portion of the district accounted for approximately 200 million short tons of the ore production. Mining at the Site was conducted from approximately 1850 to 1970. The wastes, produced from milling of the ore, primarily consisted of the following two types of material depending on the milling process used:
- Chat - which is sand and gravel-sized particles produced by dry gravity separation processes.
- Tailings - which are sand and silt-sized particles produced by froth flotation which were slurried to diked impoundments.
The Site is a concern because of the mining and milling wastes remaining on the surface throughout the county. The wastes constitute a significant source of heavy metals contamination with potential for exposure to people and the environment. Past mining and milling practices have also resulted in the contamination of surface soil, sediments, surface water, and groundwater in the shallow aquifer. The primary contaminants of concern are lead, cadmium, and zinc.
AVAILABILITY OF DOCUMENTS
For additional details, EPA's Record of Decision (ROD) and supporting documents for the Newton County Mines Superfund Site can be found at one of the following repositories:
Granby City Hall
302 North Main Street
Granby, Missouri 64844
(417) 472-6556
Neosho Public Library
201 West Spring Street
Neosho, Missouri 64850
(417) 451-4231
EPA Region 7 Records Center
901 North 5th Street
Kansas City, Kansas 66101
1-800-223-0425
If you have questions about the Public Availability Session or any other facet of this Site, please contact:
Debbie Kring
Community Involvement Coordinator
U.S. EPA - Region 7
Office of Public Affairs
901 North 5th Street
Kansas City, KS 66101
(913) 551-7725
Toll-free: 1-800-223-0425
Email: kring.debbie@epa.gov
SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS
EPA Region 7 is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in one of the public meetings, please notify the EPA Reasonable Accommodations Coordinator, Jonathan Cooper, at 1-800-223-0425 or cooper.jonathan@epa.gov at least seven days prior to the meeting. Speech or hearing impaired individuals should email or call using the local relay service.