My corner of the institution: KARL explores adapting to change in Pittsburg...

Gotta love a college town!

The KARL Program is back in full swing for year two of the two year program, and I'm still blown away by the takeaways I come home with. Pittsburg was no exception.

We started our trip to Pittsburg with a stop at Pittsburg State University. If you have a college-aged kid thinking about school and is into technology or woodworking, or mechanics, you need to look at Pitt State. The entire class was impressed by the resources this small, affordable school has at its fingertips. We had a graduate of the program in our class and she mentioned just how far the program has come. It's fascinating to see such a gem and the type of students the state of Kansas is churning out in high level jobs, and the job placement they have is incredible.

After a two hour tour of just the technology building we herded into a classroom to learn more about the Superfund community of Treece. Most of us didn't realize Kansas had Superfund communities, and Treece was an interesting story. A Superfund is a trust fund set up to help recover natural resource damages caused by pollutants or hazardous substances. The town of Treece was on the Oklahoma border and was a mining community that contributed about $20 billion worth of ore during World Wars I and II. Business was booming until the 70's.

When the ore production declined, so did the community. Due to severe pollution the Environmental Protection Agency bought out the residents' property in 2009. Residents in town had until August of 2010 to apply for the federal buyout, and only two residents chose to stay in their double-wide. All other facilities in the town have been demolished, sold, or moved and in 2012 Treece became unincorporated.

One of the sites we visited.

The class learned a lot about reclamation projects on this trip. On Thursday morning we took a bus tour of the area and cruised through parts of rural Cherokee county where mining was the anchor until the 70's. Now it's up to Mother Nature and some funding to make the areas once mined useable. Some areas will take more time, and money. One of the sites is so acidic due to contamination it would eat a T-post in about two to three years.

While we were cruising the country we also had the opportunity to see Big Brutus. The massive Bucyrus-Erie model 1850B electric shovel.

Here are some quick facts about Brutus:

16 stories tall (160 feet)
11 million pounds
150 foot booms
Dipper capacity is 90 cubic yards (150 tons in one bite, which is enough to fill three rail cars)
Max speed of .22 MPH
Cost $6.5 million (in 1962)

Big Brutus.

After we spent the morning country cruising we headed back to base to learn more about the area. We discussed EPA regulations, reclaiming projects, and how Research and Extension is trying to do their part to help with water pollutants before the water makes its way to Oklahoma. Other topics we discussed ranged from endangered species, to the Lesser Prairie Chicken and watershed programs. It was a lot of information to take in just three days.

Oh, but we did have some fun. We had our Christmas party, which was too fun for even this blog!

As we talked about adapting to change I reflected on how I have changed throughout this process, and how the relationships I've formed in the KARL Program have pushed me to change. I've gained perspective and have seen myself differently.

I'm looking forward to next month's adventure to Greensburg (and not having to drive six hours!)

Here are a few more photos from our session.