Residents of Ponca City, Oklahoma Report Black Dust Coating Homes and Yards

Residents of Ponca City, Oklahoma, a town about 106 miles north of Oklahoma City, report that a fine black dust has coated homes, cars, yards, playgrounds and entire neighborhoods. Locals say the substance appeared again in 2024 after similar incidents between 1996 and 1999.

Over the past two years, nearly two dozen complaints filed with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality describe dust and thick black smoke coming from the Continental Carbon Company facility in the southern half of town. One complaint states that the company is generating fugitive dust that is affecting surrounding properties.

In 2005, members of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma and residents filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Continental Carbon over alleged pollution and health impacts. The complaint described air-polluting emissions of very fine and sticky carbon black dust that is difficult to clean from skin, homes, toys and cars.

5 million settlement in 2009. The same year, the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union and the Ponca Tribe filed another lawsuit accusing the company of violating the Clean Water Act by polluting groundwater and contaminating a nearby marsh.

The company later agreed to implement a Groundwater Monitoring Plan.

Wagner said the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality is actively working on strategic monitoring solutions to identify the source. She stated that officials have no confirmed evidence linking the dust to any specific source and will let the science lead the investigation.

Linda Kirby, who has lived in the town for 10 years, said the dust coats everything, including the school her granddaughter attends. She added that residents need help to resolve the issue for the community. Longtime resident Carla Moulton said she recently had lung cancer and felt she should not be inhaling the black dust.

Suzanne Boettcher and her husband Fred, who fought pollution issues in the early 2000s, were also diagnosed with cancer, according to the report.