up in kansas runs through the mining belt becomes contaminated at douthat which is just south of picher it then rooms on the east side of commerce runs through the center of miami only into neo show river. on into green light let's just say it's been doing that since eighty three nothing but orange yucky smelly containment. this watershed has been clocking five million gallons a day since there have been clocks. and if water rolls into the mines or slides off the chap pilot flows out from the underground it's real bad news. isaac newton says the reaction to the mining is a lifetime polluted water. and this mine system swallows any groundwater hole and then coughs up orange blood. look at these problems and say this has been here for a long time. it's not just twenty five years of superfund it's it's since money. and we all benefited from that money either directly or indirectly. it was a good thing for the united states but this is the legacy. kind of a obligation to fix. if you drive through picher right now and drive down the road nothing's changed nothing is really. they put us all t

you know and i feel bad for the people that are living over in picher. i feel bad that they're going to have to move i feel bad that they're going to have to be relocated but you know what i call posed in one leave or console. so. it's giving bad out here. but not saying hardly any birds squirrels you know. ducks geese you know i don't know what's going on here this this is like rachel carson's nightmare today you know we're having a silent fall here and you know where are the birds where's the wildlife. just don't see this is really unusual i've never been on this river and seen it. you can even hear a bird chirping you know. i think the worst story would have to be. the worst story would have to be. the kids we let slip through the cracks. the kids that. didn't get any help early on. because if you look back if you look back in school history if you talk to families. with those probes who are here. and we didn't know it. hundreds of towns and cities have diminished even died when industry pulls up stakes but these downs in oklahoma began to die because

knew nothing about picher i'd spent half of the football game picher oklahoma back in one thousand nine hundred four it was dark didn't have the opportunity pre-shared the scenic view that the pitcher offers with the chip pounds so i do nothing really about pitcher at all it became obvious fairly quickly to me that you know we had a hard percentage of kids it more difficult in the classroom super kids but. they had. we knew we had some problems. with that was the kids out there. kind of hesitate to you know they'll bend target not. well here's our sound. we want him to be the normal lives. there's been about the oh you. did problem and i said well you need to come down here and see what what we've got it will blow your mind so they run up here and took a bunch of blood samples from. indian children and man i found the high land camp that's when it started right there went but see they would never come in here and check the kids and picture the health department when oklahoma but then i started check in and i found a monster. and so we actually went door to door in the mining communities

chip piles so i do nothing really about picher at all it became obvious fairly quickly to me that you know we had a hard percentage of kids it i'm sure had more difficulty in the classroom. super kids but. they had no stress we knew we had some problems. with the with the kids out there. counted as dates to. build and talk at much about. well he is our son knew what we wanted him to be normal was. as anybody else's kid. problems and i said well you need to come down here and see what what we got says or blow your mind so they ran a parent took a bunch of blood samples from the squad boss indian children and man they found high layered can't sets when it started grad there went but say they would never come in here and check the kids and picture the health department would help a home but then they started check in and they found a monster. and so we actually went door to door in the mining communities and knocked on doors and found out how many people had children six and under and could we do lead testing on those children and we tested a little over one hundred kids and found out th

knew nothing about pitcher i'd spent half of the football game picher oklahoma back in one thousand nine hundred four it was dark didn't have the up to the scenic view that the pitcher offers with a chip pounce so i do nothing really about pitcher at all it became obvious fairly quickly to me that you know we had a hard percentage of kids it more difficult in the classroom super kids but. they had no stress we knew we had some problems. with the with the kids out there the kind of hesitates to you know delve and talk at not. well he is our sound and we want him to be the normal. as anybody else's kid. good problem passionate or you need to come down here and say what what wait ya i said it will blow your mind so they run up here and took a bunch of blood samples from. indian children and man i found high lead camps that's when it started right there went but say they would never come in here and check the kids in the picture the health department wouldn't help but then i started checking in and i found a monster. i know why you. always use government to. and so we actually went door to d

really about picher it all. became obvious fairly quickly to me that you know we had a percentage of kids it more difficult. but. we knew we had some problems. with with the kids out there. we want to be normal. as anybody else's. problem. down here and see what. you're mine so i. took a bunch of. children. that's when it started right there when they would never come in here and check the kids and picture the health department when. and so we actually went door to door in the mining communities and knocked on doors and found out how many people had children six and under and could we do lead testing on those children and we tested a little over one hundred kids and found out that forty three percent of those kids had elevated blood leds so the extent of that was really shocking and the e.p.a. came in did. a risk assessment human health risk assessment as well as finally did a record decision and they felt like the primary risk or primary pathway was through dirt and some of the yard's tested very high in terms

just four five six piles right there around picher but you keep driving around for miles and you forget oh yeah there's a chap bases over here where piles used to be oh yeah there's a mill pond over here oh yeah there's piles the size of a house that i forget about or the size of an office building that you forget about because you're just dwarfed by the big ones. the volume here is hard to describe. people don't realize how minute it is. the chant that are there is this but most of that is being home with a. problem with moving chad in that what's left behind is far more dangerous than what they take what's left behind are the small fine materials which are much more bioavailable which means that they can be absorbed easier by the stomach and secondly they're also much higher in lead content about a thousand times higher and lead and lead content than the gravel people say shape with the word chav most of the chat piles you see out there may have this course material but then this other stuff grew larger concentrations the medals are in the size of the mine waste more so you can you ca

they stole land from the quapaw tribe to create the town of picher but for the roads and for the town itself the school kind of thing took they just took the land and this was the largest bad mining. district in the world at one time so all the munitions for war i wanted a lot of most time for war two on the american side one came from vests. so there was a huge incentive to keep the mining go on even at one time the government subsidized the mining to keep because it was a strategic mineral the catch in the law was that if the secretary of interior found any of the indians to be incompetent then the secretary of interior would manage the release. so that the b.s.a. was under a lot of pressure to have these tribal member sign mining leases if you didn't lease to the mining companies b i went to congress and had individual tribal members declared incompetent it turns out. most of the company indians were the ones that had mines on their property and were a quarter blood or norm and the ones that were deemed competent were the ones that were quarter bloater less in didn't have mining le

do nothing about pitcher i'd spent half of the football game picher oklahoma back in one thousand nine hundred eighty four it was dark.

you nothing about pitcher i'd spent half of the football game in picher oklahoma back in one thousand nine hundred four it was dark didn't have the team to appreciate the scenic view that the pitcher offer.

knew nothing about pitcher i'd spent half of the football game picher oklahoma back in ninety nine.

half a football game picher oklahoma back in one thousand nine hundred eighty four it was.