Workshop in Miami to provide information on chat sales

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Aug 18, 2008

A workshop on selling and using chat from the Tar Creek area is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Miami Convention Center in Miami.

The intent of the workshop is to ensure chat sales from the Tar Creek Superfund site continue and comply with the federal chat rule.

Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Quapaw Tribe will present information at the workshop.

EPA has established that chat from the Tar Creek area can be used safely as an aggregate in asphalt and cement road surfaces. Chat also has uses in non-transportation, nonresidential concrete and cement projects, such as commercial foundations, sidewalks and parking areas.

Chat sales are part of EPA's cleanup plans for Tar Creek. Ottawa County contains more than 50 million tons of chat.