Meet Don Ackerman

Don Ackerman is a legend in Ottawa County, OK and you haven’t known it. What he did has cost EPA millions of dollars and will cost even more in the decades to come. Those dollars all spent to protect our children from lead poisoning. The lead was found in school yards, parks and residential front and backyards, all being dug up and removed and replaced with clean lead-free soil. Don put this action into motion. We will be forever grateful and will continue to tell this story for the future generations to know, one person can make a difference and Don did it for us.

You might never have met Donald Ackerman or known what he did for Ottawa County, OK, but when he worked at the Miami Indian Clinic, he discovered one-third of our Indian Children were lead poisoned, reported this and asked federal officials to do something about it. They did investigate and found that all children living in Ottawa County could be at risk from being lead poisoned from the soil in their parks, schoolyards, and in their very own front and back yards.

Since 1995 EPA has been removing soil contaminated with lead. All of Ottawa County is now a Superfund Site. His action triggered this work. He pretty much demonstrated the fact that one person can make a difference. He certainly did.

For the last 30 years the EPA has funded work that was done to protect children, who by now could even have grandchildren they are protecting.

The EPA commitment to protecting the children from lead poisoning has cost over 300 million dollars. That may sound like a lot of money. But nowhere on earth can you BUY a single IQ point or get a brain transplant or other organ replacement for what can be lost by lead poisoning or repair the damage it can cause to every organ in your body. Intervention and elimination of the poison is how you deal with lead poisoning. The only prevention is removing it permanently so it doesn’t hide and get your grandchildren even if it skipped you somehow.

Sure, they have allowed Tar Creek, herself to flow unabated sending lead and other metals through your backyards and at times flooding your homes, parks and adding lead to the fish you eat and the lead in your wild onions and blackberries that grow in the soil she spills over on. EPA hasn’t gotten around to dealing with that yet.

But you have to admit, the EPA and now DEQ are dug in on moving contaminated yard soil. The big work on what they call high access areas happened early in the northern towns, what they called the 5 mining towns, where daycares, schoolyards, parks were dug up and lead contaminated soil removed. Gosh, through the years, they have come back to some places and re-evaluated and done it again and again, like Alexander Elementary in Commerce, and other grade schools.

That early work started in 1995, thirty years ago. The 30-year anniversary this year!

Imagine all those I Q points that have been saved. There ought to be a smart way to celebrate. I believe we ought to name it the Don Ackerman Celebration of Lives Made Better in Ottawa County, OK.

For the decades before we all understood mine tailings, we call chat could harm our children, there were pickup trucks and dump trucks bringing that stuff in to fill low areas in your yards, to fill out your driveways, to cover every county DIRT road and every alley throughout the county. Dads proudly brought it in to put under the swing sets in the backyard and to even fill sandboxes. The “sins of our fathers” unintentionally did that, not knowing the stuff was loaded with poison.

The voluntary cleanup of lead from residential properties continues to this day. It is FREE to have your soil tested, and if you need it to be replaced it is done FREE of charge and new sod replaced. If you had your yard done years ago, you can ask for it to be re-sampled for peace-of-mind. Call DEQ Hotline 800-522-0206.

Don Ackerman received one of the first Mike Synar Environmental Excellence Awards presented in 1998. We knew then what he did was important. One of the other recipients that year was Gary Moore, the Project Manager who kicked-started the first Emergency Actions by EPA.

Mark your calendars now for LEAD Agency’s 27th National Tar Creek Conference, we will be celebrating the 30th Anniversary lead work and lighting a candle for the guy who did his part for you.

Respectfully Submitted ~

Rebecca Jim

Don passed away just a month ago from a rare form of cancer. If you knew Don and would like to share your condolences with his family you may share them here. If you are only learning about him now and would like to share a comment to his family, they would appreciate hearing from you.