Proposed Plan For Baxter Springs And Treece Subistes Public Meeting

Transcription

PROPOSED PLAN FOR BAXTER SPRINGS AND TREECE SUBSITESCHEROKEE COUNTY, KANSASSUPERFUND SITEPUBLIC MEETING'Taken on Thursday, August 10, 2006, from 7': 02 p.m. to 8:11p.m., at the Baxter Springs Community Center, 1101 EastAvenue, in the City of Baxter Springs, County of Cherokee,State of Kansas, beforeJILL A. RENFRO, C.C.R.,a Certified Court Reporter and a Notary Public within andfor the County of Newton, and State of Missouri.40254750SUPERFUND RECORDSHOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE,.INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

APPEARANCESFOR THE EPA:MR. GENE GUNNEPAKansas City, MissouriHOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

S T I P U L A T I O NIT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED by and betweenparties that this Public Meeting may be taken by steno-masktype recording by JILL A. RENFRO, a CertifiedCourtReporter, and afterwards reduced into typewriting.3HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078(800) 852-946.6 (FAX) 417-358-7992

I N D E XPage/LineSTATEMENT BY MR. GUNN. 5 - 1(sic) - typed as spoken(ph.) - phoneticHOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078(800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1BY GENE GUNN:2ahead and get started.3Meeting4surface mine waste remaining in the Baxter5Springs and Treece areas of the Cherokee6County portion of the tri-state7 'district.8started, make a few introductions.9is Gene Gunn.10I think we'll goWelcome to the Publicon the proposed remedy to address theAndminingI need to, before we getI work for theMy nameEnvironmentalProtection Agency in Kansas City.And I have/11a couple of people here.I have Jim Allen12from Congressman Ryan's office in the back.13I also have State Representative Doug14Gatewood.15Springs.16County Commissioner.17Council,18in the back.19from the State of Kansas, Kansas Department20of Environmental Quality.21organization, Fred Molley and Ashley Allen.22John Miesner from the Fish and Wildlife23Service.24Kansas Geological Survey.25then from ATSDR, Agency for Toxic SubstancesMayor Huey York from BaxterAnd Rodney Edmondson,CherokeeAnd Dean Auman, CityBaxter Springs.Dean.There he isAnd then I have Leo HenningAlso from thatRex Buchanan and Bob Swain from theBack there.And5HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078(800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1and Disease Registry, Sue Casteel.2Drake from EPA.3Emily Caubalt4back, and Debbie Kring at the table.5miss anyone?6read.7regrets not being able to be here, and sends8his apologies.9name right.DaveMyself and Dave Drake.(ph.), Bob Richards in theDid IAnd I also have a regret toAlso, State Senator Dwayne UmbargerI may not have gotten thatOnce again, we would like to10thank 'you for allowing us to come into your11community over these many years to address12the human health and environmental problems13caused by the contamination by destroyed14mining activities in Cherokee County.15meeting will consist of a short16by us of the proposal, and then we'll open it17up for public comment at that point.18don't have -a PA system, so I apologize.19We'll try to shout as loud as we can as we20speak, and if you will do the same, not21shout, but, you know, speak loudly.22get up to make your comment I'll give you23some instructions later on for that.24comments are an important part of this25process, and you can submit them eitherThepresentationWeAs youYourHOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1tonight in writing on the back of that blue2card that you used to sign in, or you can3leave them on a piece of paper with us, or4you can provide them orally tonight.5have a court reporter here, Jill Renfro, to6record the public comment as you make it.7That's one of the reasons I'm going to ask8you to speak up, so we get an accurate record9of the comments we receive tonight.10We doThe' comment period began July 24th, and will end11August 22nd.12to the EPA during that time period, and there13will be an address on the last slide of the14'presentationYou can send written commentsfor receiving those comments.15Following this public comment period, at the16end of the public comment period in August17we'll be preparing a Record of Decision to18document the agency's clean up decision, and19as part of that Record of Decision we'll be20preparing21Summary, and we'll be responding to the22comments that we receive during this period.23.what's called a ResponsivenessSo there will be a written response to your24commentsattached to that agency decision.25One thing I want to emphasize,or a couple7HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1things I want to cover, one is that this is a2proposal tonight,' it's not our decision, so3it's4know, all the people that are interested in5this to make comment on, and then the Record6of Decision will be the actual document7our decision will be sent to the public.8Let's see, before I. get started I wanted to9go over a couple of things.a recommendationto you and to, youwhereFirst, the10action we're going to cover tonight addresses11impacts primarily to the natural environment12or ecology from the remainingmining waste13contamination at the surface.This action14will be required regardless of any actions to15address the physical hazards that have been16created by the collapses or potential17collapses in the mine works that are of18particular concern to the community19now.20rightAnd secondly, the actions we are. proposing fall under theauthority ofthe21Superfund Law, which has authority to address22unacceptable risks due to releases of23environmental - or to the environment of24hazardous substances, pollutants or25contaminants, and our authority would not beHOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466(FAX) 417-358-7992

1triggered by the r i s k - o f mine collapse, and2our proposal does not really cover that3tonight.4like to ask is that in order to get to your5comments we are going to make a short6presentation, if you would hold your7questions or comments during that period we8would appreciate it, and we'll get on to9taking your public comments.10After that, one other thing I wouldWith that, DaveDrake will make a short presentation.11BY DAVID DRAKE:12It's really hot in here.13cooling the room beforehand.14mentioned we're here to talk about the Baxter15'Springs and Treece areas.Kill the lights.We had troubleAs GeneAs most ofyou16know we've just completed some environmental17work down in Baxter Springs and Treece.18did a mine waste cleanup in Baxter Springs.19We've done residential properties in Treece20and Baxter, and we didn't finish all the21work.22so part of the main thrust of this proposal23tonight is to talk about the new work to24really finish out everything.25the presentationWeAll the work is really not completed,I have brokenup into just a fewsnippets,9HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1some site summary and background, we'll talk2about the prior work.3very many acronyms tonight, but acronym ROD,4or Record of Decision, is just our old5cleanup document where we did all the prior6work in Baxter Springs and Treece.78BY UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:BY DAVID DRAKE:BY UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:Can't hearyou.1314Can you hear meback there?1112We can'thear you.910We'll try not to useBY GENE GUNN:You need to speak up,Dave.15BY DAVID DRAKE:Thework tonight16w i l l r e a l l y be to m o d i f y t h a t old c l e a n u p17d o c u m e n t , the18what w e ' r e t a l k i n g about t o n i g h t , issuing a19new c l e a n u p document t h a t r e a l l y finishes20the21in the Treece a r e a .22n e w i n f o r m a t i o n t h a t ' s come o u t23the last cleanup,24we p r e f e r25.in stone.old R e c o r d of D e c i s i o n .w o r k down attheThat'sallBaxter Springs a r e a , andW e ' l l p r e s e n t some b r a n dsince we didand w e ' l l talk about whatfor the c l e a n u p .This isThis is very subjectnotsetto c h a n g e .HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI64836-0615417-358-4078 ( 8 0 0 ) 852-9466(FAX) 417-358-799210

1Your input tonight does matter, and it2matters a lot.3make changes based upon th.e comments we4receive in this process.5have some comments,6p e r i o d a t th-e very end of the presentation.7This is really the only process slide/ and8we're here tonight 'doing a public meeting,9you can see at the bottom the next step is toWe certainly will modify orAt the end we'llquestion and answer10formalize this proposed plan into a cleanup11document.12.theAfter we do that then we do justconventional design, .construction, earth13work.I see a lot of - a few contractors14.here tonight that have done work for us in15the past, and I know those types of people16are more interested in that aspect of the17work.18w h e r e - w e ' v e done most of the work down here19to date.20lot of mine waste cleanups, a lot of water21district work.22how the area looked in the past, how it is23much different now.24in the northern part of the site that's25really in design phase right now.Over here in the Galena area this isA lot of residential cleanups, aMost of you are familiar withThere's a little work upMany of11HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078(800) 852-9466(FAX) 417-358-7992

1you attended a meeting we had over in2Columbus a couple of years ago on that3subject.4that are left in Cherokee County as far as5mine waste to cleanup are in these areas6here, in the Baxter Springs and Treece areas.7I won't go over that table in very much89detail. That just summarizes all the workthat we've done historically.1011So really tonight the two thingsAlso, ifanyone wants a copy of this presentation wedo have copies up there to just look at. in a12little more detail.The main plan tonight is13to address ecological risk.14when we say ecological risk?15mentioned, we're talking about the16environment.17mussels, and surface water, and the lakes,18streams.19behind this cleanup.20for people.21people.22fish to be in lakes, and want to, you know,23use water bodies, but that's the main thrust24of what we are doing tonight.25really needs to be very clear some of the oldWhat do we meanAs GeneWe're talking about fish,That is the main driving forceIt's not necessarilyI mean, it's indirectly forPeople like to fish, and people wantI think there12HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1work that we did in the past, excavating all2of the residential yards, putting in new.3wells for people, new water districts, all of4that work was really aimed at humans, and5more of the human health issues, so this is a6little different.And that's the main focus.7On that last map, and I'm sure most of you8all are local and you know the area, and you9know that all of those drainages all go down10into Oklahoma.It's very important for11'Kansas as a state to take care of this12environmental problem.13environmental problems in Kansas, they all14wind up being environmental problems in15Oklahoma, and Grand Lake of the Cherokees,16and Tar Creek, Spring River.17another state that is invo-lved in this whole18area, as most of you know.19contamination from Missouri flows right into20Kansas, and it goes through Kansas, and21remains in Kansas, and some of it goes down22to Oklahoma.23aware of the problems that each state is24causing one another and the whole general25situation.All of theAnd Missouri isAll of theSo all three states are quiteSo that's - that's a big part of13HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1the cleanup.This proposed plan will2address, as I mentioned earlier, all the3chat, all the mining waste that is at the4surface in all of the Baxter Springs area,5all of the Treece area.6part of this, we have commercial chat sales.7What we plan to do is to commercially allow8the sale of commercial bodies of chat at the9same time that we're doing cleanup actions onAnother important10other non-commercial projects.Work kind of11at the same time, would be the way to look at12it.13commercial people can go ahead and use the14commercial chat, but at a certain point15whenever we have enough money in place and16funding in place, you know, all the17commercial chat, if it's not gone it goes18away.19meeting tonight, it really - it lets people20know if you have chat on your property and21you want to sell it, have a desire to do22that, it's really - you know, it's time t o - d o23that now before the cleanup, actions begin.24Also, another part of tonight, I know a lot25of you here are a lot of people that areWhile we're working in areas that aren'tSo another good thing about the14HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1interested in having chat taken off' of your2property, and that's also something we would3like to know, because we will start4prioritizing5enough money to do it all at once.6-happen overnight.7about a ten year timeframe.89.this.how we.do that.We don't haveIt won'tIt will be a matter ofWe went overThere's not much new information hereexcept maybe the second bullet.We always10talk about lead, in the tri-state mining11district lead is a big issue, it's very true12for humans, for human health, but really for13most of the ecological risks zinc and cadmium14are the primary drivers.15element, but the zinc is probably the16 greatest problem down here.17lot about that in the paper.18don't read a lot about the real environmental19risks caused from that and the cadmium.20think that's another thing to point out to21everyone tonight.22and it's a problem, but it's certainly not23the only problem here.24over at the Treece area.25all of you know what that looks like.Lead is also a badYou don't read aYou know, youSo II mean, lead is an issueThis is a chat pileYou know, I'm sureYou15HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1see a lot of those features there.They're2also in Baxter Springs.3we would either completely plane those chatThose are the areas. 4piles down and re-vegetate them with soil and. 5native prairie grass, or if it was a6commercial pile we would allow the commercial7use of that pile when we're working in other8areas.9more fine grain impoundmentNext slide will show a tailings flat,area.These10areas are very toxic to the environment.11These areas are much, much worse than the12chat piles.13very enriched in zinc, very enriched in the14cadmium and lead.15the most toxic areas, and they're not very -16they don't have much of a use commercially.17So a lot of those areas will be the18accumulations that we would go after first.19We will probably prioritize those because20those are the greatest risk.21mine waste in the Treece area.2223They're very fine grain, they'reEnvironmentally those areHere is someYou'll see' there's quite a number of piles there.This24particular pile up north as an example is a(commercially used pile. Just as we talked25before, that would be an example of'there are16HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615 .417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1plenty of other mine waste piles to take care2of around the town of Treece, the surrounding3homes in Treece on the outskirts, a lot of4the tailings impoundments, we would do those5areas, and if the commercial pile was still6being used we would just wait and do that at7a later time.8makes a lot of sense because, again, we can't9do everything immediately.That way - we feel that's - itWe can't10implement a sixty-six million dollar remedy11overnight.12that.13year time period.14with the chats, the people that use the chat,15make money on the chat, in order to also16reduce the volume that we ultimately have to17clean up, the amount that we have to18 It's going to take time to doWe have to spread this out over a ten .We're going to try to workremediate.In Baxter Springs, same19situation.You see some hash marks here.20These are the area's that we cleaned up. very21 .recently.Volumetrically that was22big area.Almost a million cubic yards of23material.But you see there are other areas24around there that are not done.25areas are slated to be done in the newa reallyAll of those17HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

12cleanup plan, much as we talked about before.Let's go into the prior cleanup.We've3talked a little about the ROD, and what it4is, you know, a historic cleanup document'5that was done.6really expanding on that old cleanup7document, just carrying it a little8to address all the remaining materials that9are at the surface, and we've discussedAll we're doing tonight isfurthermost10of that already.For most of you local11people this is west of Baxter Springs on 19th12Street, the old Ballard area.13go around Galena, Kansas,14here a long time, you will know that we did15nine hundred acres surrounding16Kansas, and it looks, much that way.17mine waste is now gone, it's been graded,18been planed down, it's been smoothed, re-19vegetated, there's a native prairie grass top20surface on it.21protective of the environment.22mining waste is tapped, it's covered up,23water does not reach down through it.24already seeing major improvements in water as25a result of these actions that we've done, soIf you were toif you have livedGalena,All theThese areas are veryAll theWe're18HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1 cleanups are working, they're a good thing.2This type of picture is how we would like all3of Cherokee County to look at some point in4time.5just to be gone.6we are shooting for eventually.We really7hope we can do it in a ten yeartimeframe.8That's the big goal of this plan.9We'll go into some of these studies, newWe would really like all of this wasteThat picture there is whatOkay.10information.This, again, just talks about11the historic approach.12a lot of this work to address it later.13sister region, EPA Region 6, to the south, as14most of you know they control the Tar Creek15Superfund site.16this work to do it in more of a joint process17so that we're all working on the project at18about the same timeframe, but I think a key -19a key point in this, there could really be no20meaningful Oklahoma cleanup of sediment,21especially of lakes and sediment in water22bodies, until the Kansas problem is23corrected, because all of the Kansas problem24directly flows down into Oklahoma, so how can25Oklahoma ever really clean up their problemWe'.ve really deferredOurWe have really waited to do19HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615,. CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1until the problems are cleaned up in Kansas.2On the eastern part of Kansas, and Spring3River, we can make the same statement about4Missouri.5do any meaningful cleanup of Spring River in6Kansas until the State of Missouri really7gets on board and does cleanups in that area8also.9last bullet is some additional information.It's very difficultfor Kansas toSo it's really all related.The very10A lot of people have done additional studies11about the chat and have found that the mine12waste and the chat is even more harmful to13.theenvironment than we even thought14historically.15studies - these aren't studies that were just16done by EPA.17Protection Agency is going out and doing18these studies and having these findings.19know, these studies are done by a wide range20"I would like to say theseIt's not like theEnvironmentalYouof researchers, a much wider group of people,21.people from U.S. Geological Survey, people22from the Department of the Interior, U.S.23Fish and W i l d l i f e24Kansas.25p r e s e n t i n g - and I d o n ' t m e a n it6Service, theState ofSome o f t h i s i n f o r m a t i o nI'llbeto be o v e r l y20HOLLIDAY -REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P . O . BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078( 8 0 0 ) 852-9466(FAX) 417-3.58-7992

1technical,it's just some information that we2gathered about the chat, but I think it's3 .important because it's new4information, and a wide range of people with5divergent views on the subject.6a graph of these bars.7a number of species.8of species that would be present, and this9line is the sediment lead concentration.scienceThis is justThese long bars showIn other words, numbersSo.10you can see on these bars when this lead is11very, very high this bar is very, very short.12When this bar is very, very high the lead is13very low.So what - I mean, that seems like14commonsense, it seems very intuitive.15course there's going to be a lot less things16living in sediment when there's more lead,17more metal there, and that is a very18commonsense thing, but it's nice to have a19scientific20all of this, and reports the data, and, you21know, we keep gathering this22And I don't mean we by this.23actually gathered by the State of Kansas by24Dr. Bob Angelo, who is quite a regional,25national - a lot of fine effort studying theOfstudy that goes out and measuresinformation.This was21HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1mussel population, published a lot of papers2on this topic, which I think are very useful3to show the nature of the chat.4another study.5concentration of lead and sediments.6function of the concentration of lead7actually in the tissue, the tissue of8mussels.9yellow dot when there's a lot of heavy metalHere'sIt just shows theHas aYou can see at the far right a big10in the sediment the mussels are full of it in11their tissue material.12left, down the straight line at the very13bottom, you see when there's not much lead in14the sediment there's not much lead in the15If you go to the. actual tissue material of the animal, ofthe16species.Again, that's a very - a very17intuitive finding, but it's very - you know,18it adds to the science.19by Dr. Angelo as part of his studies.20is a study by the U.S. Geological Survey,21Lawrence, Kansas, Of-fice of the Survey.22black dots show really high levels of metals23and sediment.24read, concentrations are much, much low.25(sic)This also was doneThisTheThese dots are yellow andWhen you look at that map what do you22HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1see?You see the black dots all around2Treece in the mining areas, so, you know, you3start to see a pattern, and it all makes4sense.5Here's another U.S. Geological Survey.6one was done by the Oklahoma U.S. Geological7Survey, the metals reaching out of chat piles8in the stream systems.9just discharging - just discharges from theIt starts to really pull together.ThisThey also looked at10chat areas.The red boxes are the11discharges, the blue diamonds are from the12chat.13In this case it's cadmium.14they've actually gotten to the point of just15calculating how many pounds every day-, day16after day after day, that are just loading'17into these streams.18study from one little pile area.19really shows what if you looked at all of the20piles on those two maps that we showed21before.22metal just continually -loading into the23environment every day, and where is it all24going, it's all going to Grand Lake of the25Cherokees eventually.These are pounds per day of metals.You can seeThis is just one littleSo itIt would be an enormous amount ofOn its way it's23HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1stopped everywhere in between.Tar Creek,2Spring 'River.3streams and drainages that lead there.4we're getting close to the end of these.5This is just another - this is some work by6the State's Water - State of Kansas Water7Program.8detail, but the main thing are these red9lines that you see on these graphs.It's in all of the littleAndI know you can't read the fineThose10would be the water standards for aquatic11life.12standard it's really bad, it won't support13'Any time something is above thatthe life.You see how high these bars are.14Green bars at the bottom, they're all high.15That's for zinc.16standard.17the top for the lead you see a mixed result.18You see some lead spots that are okay, theMuch higher than theThe same there for cadmium.Up at19red bar, the little red bar is higher than20the graph, but generally you look at those21bars and those graphs and you can probably22imagine that's not really a good23I mean, that's not a good outcome or finding.2425situation.This was all done under the state's - I'lluse one other acronym.TMDL Program.Total24HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1Maximum Daily Load Program.2water program that looks at all of the3loading of metals in the surface water4bodies.5.67And we've also had new informationabout birds being poisoned.horses actually die.The state'sWe've also hadWe've had dead horsesattributed to uptake of the chat.This has8been a relatively new phenomenon.We're9working with vets, vets who are researchers10out of the Washington, D.C. area, and they11are looking into this very subject.12published - not we, but the U.S. Fish and13Wildlife Service has published studies of14zinc toxicity in birds.15earlier tonight mentioned John Miesner who is16here in our audience with the U.S. Fish and17Wildlife Service.18Kansas.19.We'veI think Gene GunnJohn is out of Manhattan,John works with us quite a bit onall of the environmentaldamage.John is a20co-author of one or two of these papers, and21is quite aware of the situation and has22studied it.23alternative.24that is on the south edge of Baxter Springs.25This would be at a pile that would be, youWe'll go into the preferredThis is a chat pile I believe25HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1know, subject to the clinic, as all piles2are. This is just thrown up as an example,3but this pile would be just either completely4excavated and taken away so the ground, the5underlying ground is fine, or the pile be6capped in place.7one. Or material would be placed in these8big open collapse features.9fill up some of these features, and we'll capLet's go on to the nextYou. know, we'll10the material at the surface, and we also re-11vegetate the top of them.12this plan' in a very flexible manner.13doesn't say that pile A has to be capped and14pile B has to be put - it's not that15restrictive.16lets commercial chat be sold, and it lets17commercial chat sell.18engineer or the designer think about where19the best places are to - you know, where20.So we've writtenIt's very open.ItIt lets - itIt lets a designthese features are to fill up.That's maybe21another topic for tonight.I've already had22several of you landowners who had these ono23t h e i r p r o p e r t i e s a n d they'11 p r o b a b l y f i l l24them if25t r y i n g to do t o n i g h t , to f i g u r e out what thewe can.T h a t ' s part of what w e ' r eHOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, I N C .P . O . BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078( 8 0 0 ) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-799226

1desires are of the people who own land these2features are at.3another shot of the final product.4think this would be the goal for most of the5mine waste areas.6great environmental improvement, it's a big7aesthetic8just nicer.9the environment, we can't argue that that isAnd, again, this is justAnd IYou see, not only is it aimprovement.You know, it's - it'sI mean, although our focus is10a much nicer outcome than looking at chat11piles and mine waste.12before, you know, part of this alternative I13guess we're beating a dead horse, but we're14trying to encourage people to sell the chat,15to get rid of it before we are ready to come16onto your property and clean it up.17not gone at that point we plan to, you know,18grade it down.19work with people, but I think we need to20start thinking about how we're going to plan21all of this for the next ten year cycle.22I mentioned before, this will take about23eight or ten years.2425As we mentionedIf it'sBut, you know, we're ready toAsThere's nothing magic-about that eight to ten year number.Thatnumber is only based on how much federal27HOLLIDAY REPORTING SERVICE, INC.P.O. BOX 615, CARTHAGE, MISSOURI 64836-0615417-358-4078 (800) 852-9466 (FAX) 417-358-7992

1funding that I think I can get.2how much money that I can get.3. now, we've got money now.I don't knowI have moneyWe don't have it4all.So, I mean, the thought is it's going5to have to take about ten years to do.6of course, we talked about this time period7for sixty-six million dollars.8say, well, why are we doing that.9doing that because that's the EPA's job.And,You mightWe're10That is the law.11law, Superfund law, circle law, and we have12to do this.13can do, and there are some things the EPA14can't do.15problems in Cherokee County.16alluded to them in the very beginning of the17presentation.18that we absolutely cannot do.19feel everything in this plan are definite -20we know we can do this work.21before.22doing this work.23That is the environmentalThere are some things the EPAAnd I know there are a lot ofGene GunnSome things are just plain You know, weWe've done itThere's no legal question about usIt's

5 Springs and Treece areas of the Cherokee 6 County portion of the tri-state mining 7 ' district. And I need to, before we get 8 started, make a few introductions. My name 9 is Gene Gunn. I work for the Environmental 10 Protection Agency in Kansas City. And I have / 11 a couple of people here. I have Jim Allen 12 from Congressman Ryan's office .