Working group meeting to discuss Grand Calumet River impairments removal

August 18, 2022

The Citizens Advisory for the Remediation of the Environment will hold a virtual meeting Aug. 25 to discuss the removal of environmental impairments at the Grand Calumet River Area of Concern.

The Grand Calumet River Area of Concern is one of more than two dozen areas in the Great Lakes that have experienced changes in the chemical, physical or biological integrity at a scale large enough to cause significant environmental degradation.

It contains parts of Gary, East Chicago, Hammond and Whiting, all cities with predominantly minority and low-income populations, and extends more than a mile into Lake Michigan. The area contains multiple industrial facilities, 16 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act hazardous waste sites and half a dozen Superfund sites.

Grand Calumet River Area of Concern boundaries

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, sediments at the bottom of the Grand Calumet River and Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal still contain pollutants like carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, known as PAHs, and toxic heavy metals, like mercury, cadmium, chromium and lead.

The EPA announced in February that $1 billion in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would be used to clean up and restore areas of concern around the Great Lakes, including the Grand Calumet River Area of Concern.

The meeting will discuss the development of projects to remove area impairments and provide advice to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management on tasks required to implement a remedial action plan for the site.

The meeting will be held on the Microsoft Teams video conferencing app Aug. 25 from 9-11am Central Standard Time. To attend the meeting, open the app and type in meeting ID number 967 043 956# or call in to (317) 552-1674.

For information on CARE or more meeting instructions, visit the IDEM CARE website.

Working group meeting to discuss Grand Calumet River impairments removal

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