By AP/KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the Doe Run Company, of St. Louis, to clean up piles of lead mine waste in the eastern Missouri town of Park Hills.
The government says wind and water have carried off waste from the piles and contaminated nearby houses and the Flat River.
Doe Run is the nation's biggest lead producer. It will have a year to regrade the piles and cover them with rock and soil, once the EPA approves the company's plan.
The so-called "chat piles" are a bit of a landmark in Park Hills. The brown mounds rise high above the landscape. Children have been known to play on them, sometimes sledding down them during the winter.
The material is leftover tailings from mining activities.