Indiana Harbor and Canal,
Northwest Indiana

Post Tribune

Date: 04/21/05
Day: Thursday
Headline:Health risk of dredging canal still being studied EPA will update 1995 assessment before polluted mud is removed.
Byline: Tim Zorn, Post-Tribune staff writer

By Tim Zorn
Post-Tribune staff writer
Health risk of dredging canal still being studied EPA will update 1995 assessment before polluted mud is removed.

EAST CHICAGO — A 10-year-old study won’t be the last word on the health risks of living near a pile of contaminated river sediment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is still actively updating a health risk study on the planned Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal dredging project, a local environmentalist said Wednesday.

“I have much more faith in the EPA tonight than I have in many years,” Betty Balanoff told the East Chicago Waterway Management District’s board. She told about a meet ing Wednesday afternoon between an EPA representative and members of Coalition for a Clean Environment.

EPA representative Margaret Guerriero said the agency is planning a session soon to talk to the public about its risk-assessment study. Balanoff and others had begun to wonder, after not hearing from the EPA for several years, if the agency had abandoned its promise to update its 1995 health risk assessment on the dredging project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to remove more than 4 million cubic yards of polluted mud from the harbor and canal and place it into a confined disposal facility — on former refinery land just west of Indianapolis Boulevard and within half a mile of two schools. In 1995, the EPA said the fumes coming from the confined disposal
facility would not pose a significant health threat. Critics contended, however, that the EPA’s estimates didn’t take into account the potential health risk to the nearby school students who could breathe the fumes.

Also Wednesday, an Indiana Department of Environmental Management official said the state and the Army Corps are worried about seawall deterioration along the south side of the proposed confined disposal facility. The seawall, which keeps oil-contaminated land at the former refinery site out of the ship canal, has bulged out in two places.
The Army Corps spent about $160,000 of the Waterway District’s money to shore up one of the weakened seawall sections with stone before discovering another bulge.

“We see this as a continuing problem,” IDEM representative Steve West said.

Contact Tim Zorn at 648-3073 or at tzorn@post-trib.com