Welcome to the Spring Creek Coalition Website!
Mission: to unite as citizens and actively engage in the preservation of the Spring Creek Watershed.
Fly ash piles used to repair flooded roads sit next to the creek at the Twin Bridges area in 2009.
We Need Your Help to Support the Spring Creek Coalition
The Spring Creek Coalition (SCC) is the only organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of Spring Creek. But we can’t do that without you. For the past year SCC has been funded entirely by a group of nine volunteers. Our costs include this quarterly newsletter, $240, tree-planting and other events, $500, mailings, $150, website $20 per month, and more.
Please join or renew today, $20, $100 life-time membership.
Donations are welcome. SCC is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.
Make checks payable to Spring Creek Coalition. Mail with your contact information to PO Box 217, Peggs, OK 74452.
Spring Creek is a wonder and a gift to all of us. Let’s keep it that way.
EPA Seeks Public Comment on Fly Ash Regulations
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering options for regulating the use and disposal of fly ash, a waste material left over from coal burning.
The EPA has published two options for public comment, the first a more strict approach treating fly ash as a hazardous waste and the second treating it as a non-hazardous solid waste. Oklahoma presently produces large amounts of fly ash, much of which is contained at power plant sites or used to fill abandoned mine pits. However, ash also finds its way into widely applied cement and road-base materials, which is considered an acceptable use under existing regulations.
Use of fly ash to repair roads near Spring Creek is known to have caused serious, long-term degradation of the creek bed (see Fall 2009 Newsletter).
Fly ash can contain high concentrations of metals (e.g., arsenic, lead, mercury) and has been attributed to human health effects.
The EPA is accepting public comments on this issue until September 20, 2010. EPA’s proposed options, which refer to “coal combustion residuals” (the technical name for fly ash), were published in the Federal Register on June 21, 2010. Instructions for how to submit comments are contained in that notice and also may be found in a Tulsa World article published on July 11, 2010.
Additional information on environmental effects of fly ash is posted currently at www.sierraclub.org.
Save the Date
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Spring Creek Coalition Fall Event: Trash Pick-up and Cookout
Twin Bridges Area. More details as the date approaches.
