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Assessment Plan for Tar Creek, Ottawa County, Oklahoma Draft Report

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Assessment Plan for Tar Creek, Ottawa County, Oklahoma Draft Report Assessment Plan for Tar Creek, Ottawa County, Oklahoma Draft Report Prepared for: U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs State of Oklahoma, Department of Environmental Quality State of Oklahoma, Department of Wildlife Conservation and Seneca-Cayuga, Miami, Wyandotte, Eastern Shawnee, Ottawa, Peoria, and Cherokee Tribes Prepared by: Stratus Consulting Inc. PO Box 4059 Boulder, CO 80306-4059 August 1, 2008 SC11112 Contents List of Figures............................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ..................................................................................................................................v Acronyms and Abbreviations ..................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1 Introduction........................................................................................................ 1-1 1.1 Site Description.................................................................................................... 1-4 1.2 Operational History.............................................................................................. 1-4 1.3 Potentially Responsible Parties............................................................................ 1-5 1.4 Remediation History............................................................................................ 1-6 1.5 Natural Resource Damage Assessment Activities............................................... 1-6 1.6 Organization of the Assessment Plan .................................................................. 1-7 Chapter 2 Affected Natural Resources .............................................................................. 2-1 2.1 Natural Resources in the Tar Creek Assessment Area ........................................ 2-1 2.1.1 Groundwater resources............................................................................ 2-1 2.1.2 Surface water resources ........................................................................... 2-2 2.1.3 Geologic resources................................................................................... 2-5 2.1.4 Biological resources................................................................................. 2-5 2.1.5 Tribal cultural resources .......................................................................... 2-8 2.1.6 Air resources............................................................................................ 2-8 2.2 Contaminants of Concern .................................................................................... 2-9 2.2.1 Effects of heavy metals on terrestrial plants............................................ 2-9 2.2.2 Effects of heavy metals on aquatic biota ............................................... 2-12 2.3 Sources of Hazardous Substances...................................................................... 2-14 2.4 Confirmation of Exposure.................................................................................. 2-19 2.4.1 Groundwater exposure........................................................................... 2-20 2.4.2 Surface water and sediment exposure.................................................... 2-21 2.4.3 Geologic resources exposure ................................................................. 2-22 2.4.4 Biological resources exposure ............................................................... 2-23 2.4.5 Air resources exposure........................................................................... 2-26 2.5 Preliminary Determination of Recovery Period ................................................ 2-27 Page ii SC11112 Stratus Consulting Contents (Draft, 8/1/2008) Chapter 3 Role of Trustees.................................................................................................. 3-1 3.1 Trusteeship Authority.......................................................................................... 3-1 3.2 Decision to Perform a Type B Assessment.......................................................... 3-1 3.3 Natural Resource Damage Assessment Process .................................................. 3-2 3.3.1 Preassessment phase................................................................................ 3-2 3.3.2 Assessment plan phase............................................................................. 3-3 3.3.3 Assessment phase.....................................................................................3-4 3.3.4 Post-assessment phase............................................................................. 3-4 3.4 Natural Resource Damage Coordination with Response Actions ....................... 3-5 3.5 Public Review and Comment............................................................................... 3-5 Chapter 4 Assessment Approach........................................................................................ 4-1 4.1 Assessment Stages............................................................................................. 4-2 4.1.1 Injury determination .............................................................................. 4-2 4.1.2 Quantification ........................................................................................ 4-3 4.1.3 Damage determination........................................................................... 4-4 4.2 Data Sources...................................................................................................... 4-4 4.3 Injury Determination [43 CFR § 11.62] ............................................................ 4-6 4.3.1 Groundwater [43 CFR § 11.62(c)]......................................................... 4-6 4.3.2 Surface water [43 CFR § 11.62(b)]........................................................ 4-7 4.3.3 Sediments [43 CFR § 11.62(b)]............................................................. 4-8 4.3.4 Geologic resources [43 CFR § 11.62(e)] ............................................... 4-9 4.3.5 Biological resources [43 CFR § 11.62(f)] ........................................... 4-10 4.3.6 Air resources [43 CFR § 11.62(d)] ...................................................... 4-12 4.4 Pathway Determination.................................................................................... 4-12 4.5 Injury Quantification........................................................................................ 4-12 4.5.1 Spatial and temporal extent and degree of injuries.............................. 4-14 4.5.2 Determination of baseline services...................................................... 4-14 4.5.3 Estimation of service loss .................................................................... 4-15 4.5.4 Estimation of the time required for recovery to baseline..................... 4-16 4.6 Damage Determination .................................................................................... 4-16 4.6.1 Restoration-based estimates of compensable value............................. 4-18 4.6.2 Equivalency analyses........................................................................... 4-18 4.6.3 Restoration planning............................................................................ 4-21 4.6.4 Development of the RCDP .................................................................. 4-23 4.7 New Site-Specific Assessment Studies Being Considered by the Trustees .... 4-24 Chapter 5 Quality Assurance Project Plan........................................................................ 5-1 References...................................................................................................................................R-1 Page iii SC11112 Figures 1.1 Overview of the Tar Creek NRDA assessment area, from the Kansas border to Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees ..................................................................................... 1-2 1.2 Aerial photo of Tar Creek and surrounding areas, with chat piles clearly visible........... 1-3 2.1 Surface water resources in the Tar Creek assessment area.............................................. 2-3 2.2 Tar Creek near the Oklahoma-Kansas state line, February 2007 .................................... 2-4 2.3 Ozark big-eared bat.......................................................................................................... 2-7 2.4 Ozark cavefish................................................................................................................. 2-7 2.5 Chat piles in the Tar Creek assessment area.................................................................. 2-15 2.6 Tailings pond and subsidence pond in the Tar Creek assessment area ......................... 2-16 2.7 Groundwater seeps discharging to surface water in the Tar Creek assessment area..... 2-17 2.8 Bank swallows frequently nest in chat piles in the assessment area, evidenced by holes on steep chat pile faces.................................................................................... 2-24 4.1 Simplified model of potential pathways for natural resource exposure at the Tar Creek assessment area............................................................................................. 4-13 4.2 Hypothetical timeline of injuries and damages.............................................................. 4-17 Page iv SC11112 Tables 2.1 Examples of individual and community-level phytotoxic effects of
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