The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has tasked a former East Chicago company with exploring potential contamination at the Superfund site adjacent to the Calumet neighborhood.
The EPA reached an administrative agreement in September, which became effective Oct. 4, with U.S.S. Lead, whose name was used to designate the area a Superfund site, to conduct groundwater and soil testing to explore potential contamination that remains at the former industrial site along Kennedy Avenue. The company will do both a remedial investigation to look at potential contamination, according to EPA documents, and a feasibility study that details ways to contain any problems.
"Residual contamination from lead and other metals may remain in soil, wetlands and other areas within the former U.S.S. Lead facility that may result in unacceptable exposure of contaminants to human and ecological receptors," the EPA said in the agreement. The agreement noted that possible off-site groundwater contamination is coming from the facility.
The EPA is holding a community forum at 10 a.m. Saturday at the old Carrie Gosch School, 455 E. 148th St., in the Superfund site, to listen to concerns from community members.
Debbie Chizewer, of Northwestern University Pritzker Law's Environmental Advocacy Clinic who is working with the East Chicago Calumet Coalition, said she's glad the EPA heard the community's concern about the groundwater and reached an agreement to explore the issue.
But because the EPA is letting the company take the lead on the studies, Chizewer said residents will keep a close eye on the process to make sure it's done throroughly.
"I think the residents are really concerned about the groundwater," Chizewer said.
The EPA said it prefers to have potentially responsible parties perform work so its own resources can go toward projects that don't have a company or entity being held liable for contamination. The EPA said in an email it will oversee and monitor the work.
Once the company completes the two studies, the EPA will create a proposed remediation plan, before collecting public feedback and issuing a record of decision.
U.S.S. Lead operated its East Chicago facility from 1906 to 1985, according to the EPA, and in 1996 constructed a corrective action management unit where contaminated material from the then-shuttered company was contained to prevent further contamination of the surrounding area. The EPA said the company also built barriers to limit other contaminant exposure.
In 2009, the U.S.S. Lead site was listed on the national priorities list, according to EPA documents, and divided into two operable units.
The first unit includes the residential areas of the Calumet neighborhood. The EPA conducted a remedial investigation of the neighborhood, according to documents, and in 2012 created a record of decision that detailed the cleanup plans for that portion of the site.
The second unit includes the company's former facility, which is south of the Calumet neighborhood.
The clean up plan for zones 1 and 3 were included in a 2014 consent decree, which The U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana approved, between the EPA, Department of Justice, state of Indiana, the Atlantic Richfield Co. and E.I. du Pont De Nemours regarding the cleanup of the U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery site.
Based on the agreement, the two companies would cover roughly $26 million in cleanup costs, according to the EPA.
The plan did not include zone 2, which runs from 151st to Chicago Avenue and Huish to McCook Avenue.
The EPA in March announced another $16 million had been secured from the responsible parties to bolster cleanup in the Superfund site, specifically the area not included in the previous consent decree.
The EPA first opted to start cleanup in the residential portion of the Superfund site because it was the "most likely exposure pathway for residents," according to a statement from the EPA, and the risk associated with the groundwater and contaminants at the former factory is much lower.
"The former U.S.S. Lead facility is no longer in operation, and surface contamination there has already largely been addressed," the EPA said. "Similarly, potable water in the residential neighborhood is provided by the City of East Chicago, it does not come from groundwater well."