Because of the contamination, Picher children have suffered elevated lead, zinc and manganese levels, resulting in learning disabilities and a variety of other health problems.

In addition, the people have suffered extended adverse health effects, including high rates of miscarriage and neurological damage to children, as a result of the unregulated mining activities before passage of federal environmental laws.

[4] Climate change makes this contamination risk worse: extreme rainfall increases runoff and leaching.

Following the Oklahoma Organic Act, an 1897 court ruling would allow allotted land to be leased for the purpose of mining but this was later curtailed by numerous subsequent lawsuits.

Because of mismanagement by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, only about one sixth of Quapaw landowners would ever receive the land lease payments and mined mineral royalties they were owed.

1926 was the year of highest production in the area, and Ottawa County became the world's largest source of lead and zinc, employing 11,000 men in almost 250 mills.

[6] In the 1960s and 1970s, health and environmental hazards were found at mining and industrial sites across the United States, such as Times Beach and Love Canal.

Companies had changed and often the generators of such hazards were no longer in business and unavailable to mitigate or clean up such toxic areas.

CERCLA´s environmental programs and initiatives are referred to as the Superfund: hazardous sites were identified and federal financing was allocated to remediate them.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established a Hazard Ranking system and a National Priorities List in 1981 and 1982, respectively.

By 2006, most of this money was allocated to a buy out and relocation program of residents of the area, because of the immediate health hazards to people still living there.

The Oklahoma Plan for Tar Creek claimed around 75 million tons of chat piles exist, while the exact amount of tailings is unknown.

[1] Between 2002 and 2011 pregnant women in the Tar Creek area, and mothers and their infants were enrolled in a study following the children to the age of two years old.

The concentration of manganese in the blood of women of Tar Creek at or near the time of delivery was inversely associated with lower neuro-development scores of their children at 2 years of age.

[10] Estimates in 1982 showed lead and cadmium levels in the underground aquifer of Picher were five times the national standards for drinking water.

The following year it offered a voluntary buyout to affected families with children, in order to support their relocation to other, safer areas.

[13] The Oklahoma Plan for Tar Creek has listed four main objectives in the process: improving surface water quality, reducing exposure to lead dust, attenuating mine hazards, and land reclamation.

[8] The University of Oklahoma's Department of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science has implemented a 1.2 million dollar passive water treatment system.

In 2017 local residents criticized former EPA chief and Oklahoma native Scott Pruitt for his part in how the 33-year cleanup has been conducted.

[citation needed] A musical about the Superfund site, The Picher Project, was conceived and directed by Quentin Madia.