WASHINGTON - A spending bill for the Interior Department approved by the Senate this week provides an incentive for contractors to buy mine waste in the polluted Tar Creek area for use in highway projects.

Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, sponsored the provision, which could help the Quapaw Tribe sell "chat," mine tailings left from lead and zinc mining done decades ago in northeastern Oklahoma, to contractors on federally funded road projects.

According to Inhofe's office, 65 million tons of chat are available; 500,000 to 750,000 tons are used each year. The bill also includes $300,000 for a wastewater treatment facility in Enid, another Inhofe-sponsored project. But Inhofe and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, strongly opposed the bill because it spends 16 percent more money than last year's bill for the Interior Department and other agencies.

Before passing the legislation, the Senate killed an amendment by Coburn that would have redirected money intended to acquire more federal land to maintenance needs on existing federal land.