How do I get my soil tested?
Get your questions answered and sign up for testing by visiting Soil Sampling Toolkit or viewing homeowner's frequently asked questions here. You can also download the sign-up form here and mail or fax it back to the Blackwell Community Outreach office. You will receive a call from our Blackwell Community Outreach representative to schedule your soil sampling.

What is the Supplemental Soil Sampling Program?
Freeport-McMoRan and its predecessor companies have worked cooperatively with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) to investigate and clean up environmental conditions in Blackwell. Freeport-McMoRan never operated the Blackwell smelter, or contributed to the environmental issues that resulted from operations at the facility, but is using resources generated by other operations to fund the cleanup. In 2001, ODEQ approved the completion report for the soil cleanup program that Freeport-McMoRan's subsidiary, Cyprus Amax Minerals Company, had performed in Blackwell in the 1990s. To the extent that landowners did not participate in this original soil cleanup, Freeport-McMoRan has agreed to provide additional sampling and, as appropriate, removal of soils from residential and commercial properties in Blackwell.

The original soil cleanup program conducted in the 1990s was effective in the areas of Blackwell where remediation was conducted. Consistent with private property rights, the ODEQ-approved soil cleanup plan relied in part on voluntary participation by property owners to address areas on their property that may have been affected by placement of smelter materials, such as for use as fill material or to construct driveways. As part of the initial soil cleanup effort, participating property owners had their yards sampled and, if soil was found to exceed cleanup standards, the soil in the entire affected yard area was removed and replaced with clean soil.

Freeport-McMoRan has initiated the supplemental soil program to give owners of properties that were not sampled under the previous program an additional opportunity to participate. Read More about Freeport-McMoRan's projects in Blackwell.

How will the Freeport-McMoRan cleanup plan impact the value of my residential property?
Both ODEQ and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have determined as a matter of public record that the ODEQ-approved soil cleanup plan being implemented by Freeport-McMoRan is protective of human health and the environment. The best way to protect property values is to implement a safe and effective cleanup plan developed and endorsed by environmental professionals at the state and federal environmental agencies with responsibility for Blackwell. On the other hand, sensational, negative, and inaccurate characterizations of environmental conditions in Blackwell have the potential to negatively affect property values and do little to address the real issues.

How successful has this program been?
The residential soil remediation work has been very effective to date, and upon completion will meet ODEQ requirements for cleaning up soils that may have been impacted by historical smelter operations in Blackwell. Areas with lead, arsenic or cadmium concentrations above the ODEQ cleanup levels are identified and soils exceeding those levels are removed. The level of participation has been excellent with almost 90 percent of all residential property owners in Blackwell requesting sampling of their properties under the supplemental soil program.

Soil cleanup in residential neighborhoods under the supplemental soil program began in October 2008. As of Dec. 3, 2010, Freeport-McMoRan had sampled 3,967 properties, and of those 742 properties have concentrations of metals above one or more of the cleanup levels established by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality for Blackwell and 660 cleanups have been completed. The majority of the properties only exceeded the cleanup level for one metal, but some exceeded more than one cleanup level. Approximately 18 percent of the sampled properties require some level of cleanup under the ODEQ plan.

Read more about the progress of the program.

What happens if my soil is tested and found to exceed environmental standards?
If yard soils on your property are found to have concentrations of arsenic, cadmium or lead in soil above the cleanup levels established by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ), Freeport-McMoRan will remove such soils in accordance with a work plan approved by ODEQ. The removed soil will be replaced with clean soil and, if appropriate, the area re-sodded and re-landscaped.

Watch an instructional video on how the remediation process is conducted.