DeGruson Lecture focuses on Tar Creek Superfund site

  Monday, October 14, 2013 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

A researcher and a communications expert will talk about the Tar Creek Superfund site from their own unique perspectives when Pittsburg State University hosts its annual Gene DeGruson Memorial Lecture at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17, in PSU’s Axe Library.

Rober Nairn, director of the Center for Restoration of Ecosystems and Watersheds and Associate Professor in the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science at the University of Oklahoma, and Alicia Mason, a former broadcaster and now a member of the PSU Department of Communication, will speak.

Nairn directed a $6 million project at Tar Creek to remove contaminants from water seeping up from the numerous lead and zinc mines in the region. Mason’s recent works have addressed risk and crisis communication in business, public health, and environmental contexts. Their lectures will be on the first floor of the library.

The Tar Creek Superfund Site is a 50-square-mile area in Northeast Oklahoma that has been called the “most toxic area in the United States.”

The Gene DeGruson Memorial Lecture honors the memory of Gene DeGruson, who founded the Special Collections Department in 1968. A well-known scholar, writer and editor, DeGruson was especially identified as an expert on Kansas and Southeast Kansas history. DeGruson died in 1997. The memorial lecture is set to occur near the time of DeGruson's birthday, which was Oct. 10.

The Gene DeGruson Memorial Lecture is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Friends of Axe Library.

For information, call Axe Library, 620-235-4880.