TULSA, OKLA. ? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a $66 million proposal to clean up portions of a rural Kansas Superfund site near the Oklahoma border, but it does not include a buyout for people who live in the area.

This week, the agency mailed notices about its plans for portions of the Cherokee County Superfund site in the far southeastern corner of Kansas. The Tulsa World reported Tuesday that the notice calls for the cleanup of the contaminated Baxter Springs and Treece sections of the 115-square-mile site to take eight to 10 years, but the mailing does not mention a buyout program for residents.

The former lead and zinc mining site is part of the Tri-State Mining District, which also created the Tar Creek mining site in northeastern Oklahoma. Concerns about contamination in Tar Creek prompted federal and Oklahoma authorities to start a voluntary buyout program to relocate Oklahoma families living in the area.

The EPA already has spent about $60 million cleaning the Cherokee County site, which is contaminated with lead-based chat, tainted water, sinkholes and other dangers. The former mining area was placed on the Superfund list in 1983.

The Tar Creek site buyout program began in May. Treece resident Gayla Woodcock said she thought people in her area would be included, but when families from Treece tried to attend an informational meeting, she said officials “told us to leave and that we were not affected.”

Treece has about 100 residents, who do much of their shopping in nearby Picher, just across the Oklahoma border.

“It’s not a good issue as far as them being bought out and nothing being said to us,” Woodcock said.

Kansas officials are considering buying out residents near the site, said Sharon Watson, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

“That is something that is being discussed, but it has not been approved,” Watson said. “The concern was the infrastructure was in the city in Oklahoma and if everyone leaves that small town in Oklahoma, that would impact services.”