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Its a hot July morning, and I find myself in a pair of waders along with around 8 other people, walking in Tar Creek and pulling out rocks from the stream. The water is much higher than usual, attributable to the recent downpours. We determine that the water is still safe enough to work in, using long metal poles to help us with balance as we get to the faster moving parts of the creek. We have waders on to reduce our exposure to the contaminated water, but the kids who built these dams did not.

You may be wondering: Why are the dams here? Well, local teens would want to have a better fishing hole or deeper water to swim in, so they decided that blocking water flow was the best choice for this. While they are not wrong, the creek they chose to do it in can have detrimental health effect. Tar Creek is high in heavy metals, exposing anyone in the water and even those on the banks to heavy metal poisoning. Also, the accruement of still water in a water system can lead to increased bacterial growth and less ideal conditions for local wildlife. Overall, the effects are negative on humans and the environment.

During my summer at LEAD Agency, we decided we wanted to do something about this. Thus, we dedicated a day to go out and break down these dams, and we left informational signs about the creek’s health dangers to help educate those that have been hanging out around the creek.

I recently helped run a summer camp for LEAD Agency where we connected music and environmental contamination and educated kids on local environmental harm. At the same time, we were teaching them how to play instruments and express their emotions about the local creek and how they want to remediate in a musical form. They took a song that we used at previous summer camps and added another verse. They also decided to make a punk rock version that was much more “heavy metal” oriented (pun intended).

All of the kids who attended the camp were local to Miami, Oklahoma or neighboring cities. However, there were still kids who did not know about the dangers of swimming in Tar Creek. They also did not know of the Superfund site sitting in their backyard. Now, this is not their fault, because no one took the time to teach them about the environmental dangers surrounding them. This need is what made this experience so important to me, knowing that informing these kids about the heavy metal contamination around them could prevent them from getting sick from it.

Everyone in the camp also wished it lasted longer and had an amazing time with both the music and the environmental aspects. I am very confident that these kids are going to go out into the world and spread the word about the state of the creek and land, and hopefully bring more attention to the need for remediation in Tar Creek.