The land has been offered to the Quapaw Tribe, which already has land holdings in the area.

 

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – A trust formed to oversee the voluntary buyout of homes and businesses in the Tar Creek Superfund site has begun to wind down its work.


The federal government spent $46 million to buy property in Cardin, Hockerville and Picher, where years of lead and zinc mining left 60 million tons of waste piled up and the ground was deemed unstable by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Tar Creek site has been linked to elevated blood-lead levels in young children.


Dr. Mark Osborn, chairman of the Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust, told the Tulsa World demolition work has been completed on property the trust purchased as part of the federal buyout. The plan involved 878 buyout offers, 96 percent of which were accepted, Osborn said.


The trust's final buyout offers were made months ago, and now the program is trying to dispose of the land purchased by the trust. A special audit and litigation over buyout offers are still pending.


Tyler Powell, office director for the Oklahoma secretary of the environment, said the trust's duties are coming to a natural conclusion. Trust officials are returning about $3 million in unused federal funds associated with the buyout, Powell said.


“You are probably looking at the trust sunsetting at the end of Fiscal Year 2012 contingent upon the pending litigation and attorney general audit,” he said.


Osborn said the land has been offered to the Quapaw Tribe, which already has land holdings in the area.


“The properties will forever be taken off listings for use as residences or public use,” he said.
The trust agreed Nov. 10 to hire the law firm of Lester, Loving & Davies of Edmond to represent it on legal matters, pending approval by the Attorney General's Office.


One active lawsuit was filed against the trust in April 2009 and involves numerous individuals who were unhappy with their buyout offers, court records show.


Federal buyout offers were greater than a state-sponsored buyout that occurred in 2005 before the federal program took place, Osborn said. The trust has reported the 2005 buyout offers averaged $54,000, compared its average of $65,624.


Before the buyouts began, Picher had 1,640 residents and Cardin had 150 residents, U.S. Census records show.


Osborn said half a dozen residents remain in the Picher area.
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Information from: Tulsa World, http://www.tulsaworld.com