Post-Tribune
Surely there's a study sitting in a dusty file cabinet that proves what we know: Northwest Indiana might be the most studied place on Earth.
From transportation to urban planning to taxes to education (not to mention a plethora of plans to make government better), if there's money to fund it, we'll examine it.
No doubt, some of these studies are wise and important, and deserve the dollars and the time.
But, far too often, the process works like this: Study ordered, study done, consultant paid, study shelved, all forgotten.
That seems to be the method followed for an examination of how to lower toxins in the Grand Calumet River. Except, the "forgotten" part happened before the "done" part.
Here's the background: After the federal government found the river's mercury levels at up to 13 times higher than allowed, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management was ordered to determine how to lower it. More than $1 million was directed to the effort.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers submitted its report on how to meet water-quality goals to IDEM in 2001.
"What IDEM did with it, only they could tell you," said a spokeswoman for the Army Corps.
Except, it seems, they can't. No one at the agency could answer when the study started, what exactly has been done, and how much taxpayer money has been spent.
This much they will say: Four boxes of material are collecting dust in Indianapolis. When the time is right, they say, they'll take another look.
Meanwhile, the data grow obsolete. The heavy-metal poison persists in the river.
And we taxpayers are the proud owners of yet another study for the Northwest Indiana file cabinet.
It might amuse us if we didn't feel like, again, we've just been robbed.