EAST CHICAGO, Ind. (AP) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it will clean lead-contaminated property in a northwest Indiana city so that it meets residential standards.
The (Northwest Indiana) Times (https://bit.ly/2qJEt04 ) reported the agency will continue a feasibility study to find alternatives for cleaning up the West Calumet Housing Complex in East Chicago. The agency will select a cleanup plan from the study’s findings.
The agency’s regional acting administrator Robert Kaplan asked East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland in March to “provide EPA in writing a description of the anticipated future land use for the WCHC property.”
Copeland said in an April letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt that the city will work with residents, businesses and other stakeholders to determine the future use of the area once remediation is complete.
The site could be used as a model for the agency on adaptive reuse, and reclamation as a residential site is an incentive for future development, Copeland said. He hopes to gain support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for demolition and new housing at the site.
The city and the East Chicago Housing Authority ordered more than 1,000 residents at the complex to relocate last summer after the agency found lead levels in the soil were over 70 times the U.S. safety standard.
The housing complex and former Carrie Gosch Elementary School are in the residential cleanup zone one of the Superfund site.
Residents haven’t been told to move from their homes in Calumet and East Calumet, which has about 1,000 properties in cleanup zones two and three. The agency resumed excavating contaminated soil in zones two and three this spring.
Copeland also said that he wants to focus on restoring public trust in water quality.
The EPA found elevated lead levels in nearly 20 homes last year. The East Chicago Water board recently approved a plan to replace lead and galvanized steel water lines in the Superfund area after the EPA said data indicated that it was a system-wide problem.
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Information from: The Times, https://www.nwitimes.com
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