19th National Environmental Conference at Tar Creek DRAFT AGENDA
Tuesday - September 26
Tuesday - September 26
9:00 Welcome
Rebecca Jim, LEAD Agency
Bethene Fahnestock, Vice President of Academic Affairs, NEO A & M College
9:15 Keynote Address:
Top 10 Tar Creek Myths - Ed Keheley
Urban legends and other misinformation about a complex site like the Tar Creek Superfund Site are not unusual. Ed will present some of the urban legends and misinformation that often surfaces and seek to dispel them.
9:45 EPA Region 7 Updates for Kansas and Missouri - Todd Campbell, EPA
10:00 Tar Creek OU 2 Yard Remediation - Brian D. Stanila, ODEQ
10:15 - 10:30 Break
10:30 Update on the Cleanup for the Tar Creek Superfund Site - Rafael Casanova, EPA
The presentation will discuss the current status of the remedial actions at Operable Unit 4 (Chat Piles) and will describe the cleanup work accomplished throughout the Tar Creek Superfund Site.
10:45 Chat pile cleanup on non-tribal properties - Zach Paden, ODEQ
11:00 EPA Region 6 and 7 OU 5 Sediment Updates - Katrina Higgins-Coltrain
11:20 "Two Down, Many More to Go:" Successful Mine Water Passive Treatment Under Considerable Design Constraints - Bob Nairn, Ph.D. , OU
In early 2017, the second full-scale mine water passive treatment system (PTS) in the Tar Creek watershed began operation. The Southeast Commerce PTS treats about 100 gallons per minute, and complements the 160-gallon per minute Mayer Ranch PTS which has been successfully improving water quality for nine years. The new system includes four process units, unique solar-powered aeration and sulfide-removal systems, and has already improved the chemical and biological quality of the receiving stream.
11:45 Morning Reflections with Greg McCann
11:50 - 1:00 Lunch J. Pat Carter, photographer
"If a Leaf Falls' Carter's career began with Agent Orange and led him to environmental disasters from 3-Mile Island to Tar Creek
1:00 Tribal-Led Remedial Activities at the Tar Creek Superfund Site: An Update
- Tim Kent and Craig Kreman, Quapaw Tribe
1: 25 Panel on Recent Environmental Research
2:30 Reflections and Perspective of the Tar Creek Superfund Site - Ed Keheley
As we prepare to move forward with OU5 it may be useful to reflect on the past at Tar Creek and learn from our mistakes before we declare the site a role model for other Superfund Sites.
3:00 - 3:15 Break
3:15 Panel on Water Quality
3:15 Breakout Session
Gardening Safely in a Superfund Site - Kelda Lorax, Stardust Market Garden
4:15 Panel on Fracking and Earthquakes in Oklahoma
Wrap Up Day 1
5:00 Options:
Toxic Tour Begins
Walk to Tar Creek
Poster Session with Science and Artists
6:00 Fish Fry Fundraiser sponsored by the Afton Masonic Lodge # 76 with the Miami Masonic Lodge # 140 Tickets $7 $5 for Children
Mike Synar Awards and LEAD Agency Scholarship
Pie Auction with Harold Post, Auctioneer
Entertainment by Solace Unplugged
19th National Environmental Conference at Tar Creek DRAFT AGENDA
Wednesday - September 27
9:00 Welcome
9:10 Keynote Address:
A Fight for Clean Water: Honey Creek - McKalee Steen
Three generations grew up with the crystal-clear waters of Honey Creek, until it all changed. The creek was damaged but it brought her family and others to seek justice for the environmental wrong. Their fight is worth remembering.
9:45 MATCH Project Research Continued - Dr. Robert O. Wright, Mount Sinai, NY
10:15 - 10:30 Break
10:30 A Developmental Pediatrician's Practice - Dr. Edward Gustavson
Community members will receive answers to their most often asked questions on the effects of lead poisoning on their children.
11:00 Children's Blood Lead Levels and Expanded Public Heath Interventions in Ottawa County - Dr. Edd Rhoades, Susan Quigley and Lori Yearout
The Oklahoma Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program presents an overview of childhood lead levels in Ottawa County and Tar Creek. Follow-up and case management services are available to children residing in Ottawa County through Ottawa county Health Department and Oklahoma State Department of Health with support from Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and EPA Region VI.
11:30 Q & A by the Health Presenters
11:45 Morning Reflections with Greg McCann
11:50 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 Panel on Behavioral Aspects of Heavy Metal Exposures
Link Between Lead and Subsequent Criminal Behavior - Dan Clark, Western Illinois University
Lead had been kinked with Criminal Behavior for decades but research continues to widen our grasp of how early exposure has long lasting consequences to individuals and to society.
Perspectives on Behavioral Health Impacts - Lissa James, Grand Lake Mental Health
Thirty years in mental health services with clients with life-long exposures to heavy metals seem to impact behavior health throughout a lifetime.
2:00 Keynote Address
The Crucial Importance of Bridging the Partisan Divide - Tonya Bonitatibus, Savannah Riverkeeper
3:00 - 3:15 Break
3:15 Local Environmental Concerns:
BF Goodrich Update - Trevor Hammons, ODEQ
- Dean Kruithof, City of Miami
Eagle Picher Laboratory Demolition and Restoration Project
- Dean Kruithof, City of Miami
Breakout Session
Yoga to Reduce Stress in a Superfund Site - Greg McCann (On Campus)
3:45 Panel on Climate Change, Pipelines and Renewable Energy
- Jim Wikel, Native Activist
- Earl Hatley, Grand Riverkeeper
- Johnson Bridgwater, Oklahoma Sierra Club
4:30 XRF Lead Testing an Interactive Demonstration
Public Invited to bring items to be sampled, examples: toys, coffee cups or other frequently used objects - Shaun West, Cherokee Nation
5:00 Wrap Up Day 2
Reflections will help us know how we can make next year's conference even better.
9:00 Welcome
Rebecca Jim, LEAD Agency
Bethene Fahnestock, Vice President of Academic Affairs, NEO A & M College
9:15 Keynote Address:
Top 10 Tar Creek Myths - Ed Keheley
Urban legends and other misinformation about a complex site like the Tar Creek Superfund Site are not unusual. Ed will present some of the urban legends and misinformation that often surfaces and seek to dispel them.
9:45 EPA Region 7 Updates for Kansas and Missouri - Todd Campbell, EPA
10:00 Tar Creek OU 2 Yard Remediation - Brian D. Stanila, ODEQ
10:15 - 10:30 Break
10:30 Update on the Cleanup for the Tar Creek Superfund Site - Rafael Casanova, EPA
The presentation will discuss the current status of the remedial actions at Operable Unit 4 (Chat Piles) and will describe the cleanup work accomplished throughout the Tar Creek Superfund Site.
10:45 Chat pile cleanup on non-tribal properties - Zach Paden, ODEQ
11:00 EPA Region 6 and 7 OU 5 Sediment Updates - Katrina Higgins-Coltrain
11:20 "Two Down, Many More to Go:" Successful Mine Water Passive Treatment Under Considerable Design Constraints - Bob Nairn, Ph.D. , OU
In early 2017, the second full-scale mine water passive treatment system (PTS) in the Tar Creek watershed began operation. The Southeast Commerce PTS treats about 100 gallons per minute, and complements the 160-gallon per minute Mayer Ranch PTS which has been successfully improving water quality for nine years. The new system includes four process units, unique solar-powered aeration and sulfide-removal systems, and has already improved the chemical and biological quality of the receiving stream.
11:45 Morning Reflections with Greg McCann
11:50 - 1:00 Lunch J. Pat Carter, photographer
"If a Leaf Falls' Carter's career began with Agent Orange and led him to environmental disasters from 3-Mile Island to Tar Creek
1:00 Tribal-Led Remedial Activities at the Tar Creek Superfund Site: An Update
- Tim Kent and Craig Kreman, Quapaw Tribe
1: 25 Panel on Recent Environmental Research
- Source and Transport of lead in and around the Tar Creek Superfund Site
- Streamflow Data Collected by USGS in Ottawa County, 2012-17
- Examining the Effects of Environmental Contamination on the Cognitive Abilities of Free Living Birds - Heather LePage, OU
- Presence of Metals in Grand Lake Sediments and Potential Ecological Impact - Joel Hickey, OSU
2:30 Reflections and Perspective of the Tar Creek Superfund Site - Ed Keheley
As we prepare to move forward with OU5 it may be useful to reflect on the past at Tar Creek and learn from our mistakes before we declare the site a role model for other Superfund Sites.
3:00 - 3:15 Break
3:15 Panel on Water Quality
- Swimmable, Fishable, Drinkable Water - Earl Hatley, Grand Riverkeeper
- An Overview and Update of GRDA's Ecosystems and Watershed Management Department in Grand Lake o' the Cherokees and Its Watershed - Richard Zamor
- GRDA Restoration Efforts in Ottawa County - Aaron Roper
- Using Native to Manage Stormwater: Research and Examples from Oklahoma - Jason Vogel, Oklahoma Water Survey
- Our National Nutrient Crisis - Kelly Hunter Foster, Waterkeeper Alliance
3:15 Breakout Session
Gardening Safely in a Superfund Site - Kelda Lorax, Stardust Market Garden
4:15 Panel on Fracking and Earthquakes in Oklahoma
- Jeremy Boak, Oklahoma Geological Survey
- Johnson Bridgwater, Oklahoma Sierra Club
- Matt Skinner, Oklahoma Corporation Commission
Wrap Up Day 1
5:00 Options:
Toxic Tour Begins
Walk to Tar Creek
Poster Session with Science and Artists
6:00 Fish Fry Fundraiser sponsored by the Afton Masonic Lodge # 76 with the Miami Masonic Lodge # 140 Tickets $7 $5 for Children
Mike Synar Awards and LEAD Agency Scholarship
Pie Auction with Harold Post, Auctioneer
Entertainment by Solace Unplugged
19th National Environmental Conference at Tar Creek DRAFT AGENDA
Wednesday - September 27
9:00 Welcome
9:10 Keynote Address:
A Fight for Clean Water: Honey Creek - McKalee Steen
Three generations grew up with the crystal-clear waters of Honey Creek, until it all changed. The creek was damaged but it brought her family and others to seek justice for the environmental wrong. Their fight is worth remembering.
9:45 MATCH Project Research Continued - Dr. Robert O. Wright, Mount Sinai, NY
10:15 - 10:30 Break
10:30 A Developmental Pediatrician's Practice - Dr. Edward Gustavson
Community members will receive answers to their most often asked questions on the effects of lead poisoning on their children.
11:00 Children's Blood Lead Levels and Expanded Public Heath Interventions in Ottawa County - Dr. Edd Rhoades, Susan Quigley and Lori Yearout
The Oklahoma Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program presents an overview of childhood lead levels in Ottawa County and Tar Creek. Follow-up and case management services are available to children residing in Ottawa County through Ottawa county Health Department and Oklahoma State Department of Health with support from Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and EPA Region VI.
11:30 Q & A by the Health Presenters
11:45 Morning Reflections with Greg McCann
11:50 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 Panel on Behavioral Aspects of Heavy Metal Exposures
Link Between Lead and Subsequent Criminal Behavior - Dan Clark, Western Illinois University
Lead had been kinked with Criminal Behavior for decades but research continues to widen our grasp of how early exposure has long lasting consequences to individuals and to society.
Perspectives on Behavioral Health Impacts - Lissa James, Grand Lake Mental Health
Thirty years in mental health services with clients with life-long exposures to heavy metals seem to impact behavior health throughout a lifetime.
2:00 Keynote Address
The Crucial Importance of Bridging the Partisan Divide - Tonya Bonitatibus, Savannah Riverkeeper
3:00 - 3:15 Break
3:15 Local Environmental Concerns:
BF Goodrich Update - Trevor Hammons, ODEQ
- Dean Kruithof, City of Miami
Eagle Picher Laboratory Demolition and Restoration Project
- Dean Kruithof, City of Miami
Breakout Session
Yoga to Reduce Stress in a Superfund Site - Greg McCann (On Campus)
3:45 Panel on Climate Change, Pipelines and Renewable Energy
- Jim Wikel, Native Activist
- Earl Hatley, Grand Riverkeeper
- Johnson Bridgwater, Oklahoma Sierra Club
4:30 XRF Lead Testing an Interactive Demonstration
Public Invited to bring items to be sampled, examples: toys, coffee cups or other frequently used objects - Shaun West, Cherokee Nation
5:00 Wrap Up Day 2
Reflections will help us know how we can make next year's conference even better.
The Tar Creek Conference is truly a unique, grassroots, community-oriented event. It brings science and community together. It's like no other meeting I attend!
I have been attending the Tar Creek Conference since it began. As a University professor, I find it is a great way for my students to understand that our science truly can make a difference in people's lives and for the environment.
Robert W. Nairn
Sam K. Viersen Family Foundation Presidential Professor
School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science
Director, Center for Restoration of Ecosystems and Watersheds
Associate Director, Water Technologies for Emerging Regions Center
University of Oklahoma
Bob not only attends but will be one of our featured speakers again this year, updating us on the Passive Water Treatment System in Commerce, OK.
I have been attending the Tar Creek Conference since it began. As a University professor, I find it is a great way for my students to understand that our science truly can make a difference in people's lives and for the environment.
Robert W. Nairn
Sam K. Viersen Family Foundation Presidential Professor
School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science
Director, Center for Restoration of Ecosystems and Watersheds
Associate Director, Water Technologies for Emerging Regions Center
University of Oklahoma
Bob not only attends but will be one of our featured speakers again this year, updating us on the Passive Water Treatment System in Commerce, OK.