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Cherokee County - Kansas
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| Background |
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Cherokee County is located in the southeastern corner of
Kansas (Figure 1). Portions of this county and
neighboring counties in Missouri (Jasper County and Newton
County) and Oklahoma (Ottawa
County) collectively
known as the Tri-State Mining District (Figure 2) were mined extensively
for lead and zinc for more than a century. Lead and zinc
mining began in Missouri in the mid-19th century and peaked in
1916, then shifted to Kansas and Oklahoma. Diminishing
production led to the closure of the mines in Missouri by
1957. Output from the Cherokee County and Ottawa County,
Oklahoma mines peaked in the 1920s and 1930s and diminished
thereafter. The last active mine in the
Tri-State Mining
District, located just west of Baxter Springs, Kansas closed
in 1970. The number of operating mines in the early
1900s was estimated to be in the hundreds. |
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Tailings impoundment,
Crestline Subsite, Cherokee County, KS. Jan. 30, 2004. Photo taken by John Miesner/USFWS
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Altogether, the Tri-State Mining District is approximately
2,500 square-miles in area, encompassing the northwest edge of
the Ozark Uplift in Missouri, extending west and south through
Kansas and Oklahoma to the eastern fringe of the Great Plains.
The Cherokee County, Kansas portion of the Tri-State Mining
District covers about 115-square miles.
Mining operations were principally underground and involved
sinking shafts to subsurface ore bodies. At the surface,
the raw ore was crushed in stages and the metals were
separated by gravity separation or, later flotation.
Waste rock, development rock,
chat, and
tailings materials
were dumped at the surface in waste piles. Many wastes
were re-milled as more efficient separation techniques became
available. Several small smelters were operated throughout
Cherokee County, later being consolidated into a single site
at Galena, Kansas in about 1920. This smelter remained
in operation until 1970.
After 150 years of mining and smelting, chat piles, tailings
sites, development and waste rock piles, and
subsidence ponds
(collapses of underground mined areas) are prominent features
of the landscape in the four counties of the district.
Much of the total volume of surface mine wastes has been
removed over the last few decades to provide materials for
building and roads. Approximately 94% of Kansas wastes
have been removed; however, thousands of acres of wastes still
remain on the ground surface. Much of this waste is
highly contaminated with hazardous substances, including
cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and selenium
(Se). Of these, cadmium, lead, and zinc are the main
contaminants at the site because of their relative volume,
concentration, or
toxicity.
Because of threats posed to human health and the environment
by mining-related releases of hazardous substances, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Superfund Program
included mining-impacted areas in all three states on its
National Priorities List (NPL) in 1983. The Cherokee
County Superfund site has been divided into seven mining areas:
Baxter Springs,
Treece,
Galena,
Badger, Lawton, Waco, and Crestline. EPA has pursued
and implemented remedies for some of the identified operable
units while
others are still in process.
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 Public
Documents
"CLICK Adobe Reader Icon to get
latest version"
- Assessment Documents
- Memorandum of Agreement
between the Kansas Department of Health & Environment and the U.S. Department of the Interior (pdf, 494 KB)
- Preassessment Screen and Determination, Cherokee County, KS
- Preliminary Evaluation of Mining-Related Injuries in the Cherokee County Superfund Site, Cherokee, KS (pdf, 7 MB)
- Phase 1 Damage
Assessment Plan for Cherokee County, KS (pdf, 1.25 MB)
- Appendix B - Spring River Basin Sediment Study Plan (pdf, 364 KB)
- Injury Determination Study:
USGS, Spring River Basin Sediments, Phase 1, Spring River (pdf, 7 MB)
- Injury
Determination Study: USGS, Spring River Basin Sediments, Phase 2,
Empire Lake (pdf, 17 MB)
- Biological Assessment Publication -- Pancreatitis in wild zinc-poisoned waterfowl (pdf, 350 KB)
- Biological Assessment Publication - Zinc toxicosis in a free-flying Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator)
- Biological Assessment Publication - Zinc and lead poisoning in wild birds in the Tri-State Mining District (Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri)
- Restoration Documents
- Cherokee County Restoration Plan Fact Sheet
- Draft Cherokee County Restoration Plan/ Environmental Assessment
Please Provide Your Comments to the Restoration Plan at CherokeeCountyRestoration@fws.gov
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Links to more information
Photo Gallery
Glossary
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Contacts
If you have any questions or comments related to the Cherokee
County NRDA, contact us via email or telephone:
John Miesner- Contaminants Specialist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 785-539-3474 ex.103
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