EPA Buys Out Contaminated Kansas Town

I was unaware this was really an option on the governmental table these days, but after Congressional approval, and pending President Obama's signature, the Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it's ready to buy out the town of Treece, Kansas, where a century of mining has all but made the town uninhabitable.

The Wichita Eagle, which actually owns the domain name kansas.com (good work, guys), says that the EPA's plan will cost somewhere around $3 to 3.5 million, and will allow the 100 residents or so of Treece to relocate, though I'm not sure where. Do they get to build a new town nearby? Or do they just kinda wander off?

Anyhow, that seems a pretty low price tag, considering that the town "is surrounded by huge piles of mining waste called chat and dotted with uncapped shafts and cave-ins filled with brackish, polluted water." And apparently, a bureaucratic hitch is really all that stood in the way of this deal, anyway.

The EPA has already bought out the neighboring town of Picher, Okla., stripping Treece of access to jobs, shopping, recreation and services, including fire protection and cable TV...Treece, separated from Picher by only the state line, missed out on that buyout because Kansas and Oklahoma are in different EPA administrative regions.

The town's residents show high levels of lead in their blood, so this buyout can't happen soon enough for the residents of Treece. President Obama is expected to approve the legislation by Saturday.