Target: Lee Zeldin, Administrator of Environmental Protection Agency
Goal: Continue to invest in decontamination of Tar Creek Superfund Site.
Nearly a century of lead and zinc mining contamination resulted in one of the most toxic expanses across the entire United States. Decades of forced assimilation of the indigenous tribes that once called this land home, the Quapaw Nation, led to a separation of the people from their ancestral lands…the very lands that became the Tar Creek Superfund Site. This Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri intersection – covering almost all the entire Quapaw territory – became a repository for heavy metal accumulation and millions of tons of toxic lead dust after the mines were abandoned. When the waterways turned an ominous orange, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally took notice. But it would be the long-suffering Quapaw Nation that would bring their beloved land back from the dead.
Due to their proximity to the Superfund Site, the Quapaw people have shouldered the brunt of the devastating consequences. Nearly half of children were observed to have dangerous levels of lead in their bloodstreams. To take back their land and the futures of their youth, the Quapaw negotiated with the EPA to undertake a massive and extensive cleanup of 40 acres of the site, known as the Catholic 40. In just a year’s time following the agreement, hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic residue had been removed from the parcel of land. Millions of pounds were removed in the decade after, and soil remediation and native plant reintroductions heralded a whole new phase of restoration.
Sign the petition below to urge the EPA to expand this transformative partnership and save more lands once believed lost to reckless plunder.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Administrator Zeldin,
Seven million tons of waste removed, hundreds of acres of once-ravaged land given new life, local communities shielded from toxic contamination, and crops thriving on land that had produced only death just a decade prior: these are the very real successes yielded by the EPA’s partnership with the Quapaw Nation. In just a short period of time, these indigenous peoples have cleaned up a large swath of one of America’s largest sites of chat pile pollution: the Tar Creek Superfund Site. The Catholic 40 is a template for a proven plan of action that could yet transform this entire toxic wasteland spanning three states.
A member of the Quapaw Nation environmental panel recently reminded the local community of the tribe’s and the EPA’s successes: “we want to show the achievements and the positive outlook as to what Ottawa County and for Tar Creek Superfund Site, what it can be in the future.” Make this hopeful future a reality. Expanding and investing in this fruitful partnership to cover the entire Superfund Site would leave a lasting and impactful legacy that cannot be denied.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Tim Dovid
