The waste, known as chat, contains high levels of toxic lead, zinc and cadmium. Studies have shown that when encapsulated in asphalt or concrete, chat is safe to use as a highway material, according to Leslie Rauscher, a regional spokeswoman for U.S. EPA.
“I’m comfortable they have done enough science to see that it’s safe,” said Gary Blackburn, director of the Kansas Bureau of Environmental Remediation.
“The concern we had, there’s millions of tons of this material, and if it can be put to a useful purpose it’s so much better for the taxpayers.”
The chat will be taken from the Tar Creek area, where mining polluted parts of Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas. The site, which received more than $35 million in stimulus money and has already spent 25 years in remediation, will take another 30 years and $131 million to finish, according to EPA estimates.
“This is the most devastating Superfund site in America,” said U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.). “Aluminum, lead, arsenic, zinc, all are there.”
The waste will be used primarily on Kansan highways because the state is less restrictive on lead and zinc levels in asphalt than Oklahoma, Inhofe added (Sonya Colberg, Daily Oklahoman, Jan. 18). – PV