Contamination History

1916
The Blackwell Zinc Smelter begins production under the control of the Blackwell Zinc Company, a subsidiary of American Metal Climax. The smelter employs 187 people full-time, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway builds an adjoining spur.
 
1951
A new sintering plant is erected at the Blackwell Zinc Smelter. Sintering is a method for making objects from powder and uses heat to bond particles together. It is often employed in the manufacture of ceramics.

1957
American Metal Climax is renamed AMAX. AMAX opens a cadmium plant adjoining the Blackwell Zinc Smelter. Cadmium is used in paint, pigments, ceramics and other chemical compounds. Cadmium can cause damage to the nervous and immune systems, high blood pressure, decreased fertility, emphysema and cancer.

1966
The Blackwell Zinc Smelter is now the largest horizontal retort furnace in the United States. 800 employees work in a facility covering 80 acres. The high levels of production create considerable amounts of airborne pollution and toxic byproducts. These toxic byproducts include waste-bearing sand (known locally as “connie sand”) which is freely given to the community for landfill, road paving and other private and public uses.

1971
Area farmers file a lawsuit against the owners of the Blackwell Zinc Smelter.

1974
Blackwell Zinc Company pays $4.8 million as a result of a lawsuit filed by area farmers. The Blackwell Zinc Smelter is shut down, and the owners are told to clean up the plant and surrounding area. The property is deeded to the Trustees of the Blackwell Industrial Authority.

1989
Testing conducted by the city reveals elevated levels of cadmium and zinc in the city’s sewer lines.

1992
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigates contamination related to the Blackwell Zinc Smelter site. These investigations focus on lead, cadmium and arsenic in the town’s soil, in its sewer treatment plant and in the underlying groundwater. The city informs its residents that private groundwater wells in the area are contaminated and advises citizens to discontinue use of these wells. In accordance with an agreement with the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH), AMAX has the contaminated soil moved to a contained storage site.

1993
Cyprus Minerals Company merges with AMAX to become Cyprus Amax. Cyprus Amax is now responsible for any contamination associated with the Blackwell Zinc Smelter site.

1993-2007
More than 300 Blackwell-area children are blood-tested for lead poisoning. Results show that the number of children with elevated blood lead levels is considerably higher than both state and national averages.

1994
Even though the Blackwell smelter was considered one of the most toxic sites in Oklahoma, the EPA affirmatively defers authority of smelter cleanup to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). As a result, the Blackwell Zinc Smelter site did not make the EPA’s National Priorities List (NPL), which guides the EPA in determining which contamination sites deserve further investigation. The Blackwell Zinc Smelter site is instead designated for commercial redevelopment.

1999
Phelps Dodge Corporation acquires Cyprus Amax, the company responsible for contamination related to the Blackwell Zinc Smelter site. Primarily a copper mining company, Phelps Dodge has mining operations throughout the American Southwest as well as in Mexico and South America. In 2002, Phelps Dodge was listed by the Political Economy Research Institute as the 23rd largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, and the Center for Public Integrity has named the company as a potentially responsible party in a number of federal Superfund contamination sites.

March 2005
Phelps Dodge begins planning a biosulfide water treatment plant in Blackwell. Biosulfide treatment is a chemical process designed to recover and recycle substances useful to manufacturers from waste produced by smelters. Phelps Dodge partners with a foreign company, BioteQ Environmental Technologies, on the project. According to BioteQ, the toxic metals contaminating Blackwell’s groundwater will be removed, refined and sold for a profit.

December 2006
An independent environmental team tests soil and dust in residents’ homes throughout Blackwell. The results show that the entire town of Blackwell is contaminated with lead and arsenic. These substances are highly toxic and can cause cancer, brain damage and other serious health problems.

January 2007
Phelps Dodge hires the Shaw Group to conduct soil-sampling as part of its “community outreach” program. Shaw was investigated by federal authorities after receiving $200 million worth of no-bid contracts that the company was awarded as part of the Hurricane Katrina cleanup. CorpWatch, an organization that investigates environmental crimes, reported that many of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) housing trailers that a Shaw subcontractor provided to Katrina refugees were contaminated with formaldehyde, which can cause cancer. In addition, Shaw has also been investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and has been the subject of federal class action lawsuits accusing the company of making misleading statements regarding its finances and management.

March 19, 2007
Mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. merges with Phelps Dodge Corporation and assumes liability for contamination related to the Blackwell Zinc Smelter site. Freeport-McMoRan is now the largest publicly traded copper mining company in the world.

April 10, 2007
Phelps Dodge presents an open house for area residents. According to a local news report, residents are unhappy with the forum due to their inability to ask questions of the forum’s hosts.

April 12, 2007
Nix, Patterson & Roach, a nationally recognized plaintiffs’ law firm, holds an open house for Blackwell residents and presents evidence showing substantial lead and arsenic contamination in the area.

August 2007
Nix, Patterson & Roach challenges Phelps Dodge and Freeport-McMoRan to stop deceiving Blackwell residents with their flawed soil sampling program. Nix, Patterson & Roach argues that Phelps Dodge and Freeport-McMoRan are intentionally diluting the test samples with clean soil in an effort to minimize findings of contamination.

April 14, 2008
Residents of the town of Blackwell, Oklahoma, file a class action lawsuit against Phelps Dodge and Freeport-McMoRan, demanding that the companies clean their community and fund a medical monitoring program to protect the community’s health.

 

 

 

 

SOURCES: Blackwell Journal Tribune, The Center for Public Integrity, The Daily Oklahoman, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), The New York Times, North Central Reporter, Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Political Economy Research Institute, Ponca City News, Wikipedia.org