12th National Conference on Tar Creek, Sept 22-23, 2010

The 12th Annual Tar Creek Conference was held September 22-23, 2010 at the Miami (OK) Civic Center. This year's theme was "Moving on...Ton by ton." The reference is to the removal, relocation, repository, encapsulation and management(reuse) of the contaminated chat (mine tailings) prevalent in the area, one truck load at a time. The conference was coordinated by the Local Environmental Action Demanded Agency(LEAD, Inc).

This area is predominantly held in tribal land by the Quapaw, Seneca-Cayuga, Ottawa, Peoria, Eastern Shawnee, Modoc, Wyandotte and Shawnee Tribes. Of particular relevance to the Spring River (and the greater Grand Lake O' The Cherokee) Watershed were presentations by EPA Region 6 ad 7, Mine Water Remediation, Measuring the Recovery of a Superfund Stream, Watershed Mercury Study, Spring River WRAPS, Effects of Nutrient Loading on Aquatic Life and Nutrient and Bacteria Source management.