EAST CHICAGO — A
plan to take contaminated mud out of the Indiana Harbor and
Ship Canal is environmentally sound, but needs more data.
Those conclusions are from a recent independent study of
the controversial dredging plan.
“It doesn’t answer all the questions,” environmental
activist Betty Balanoff said of the study. “But it gives us
better questions to ask.”
Citizens will have a chance to hear and ask questions of
the study’s authors next week.
Danny David Reible of Louisiana State University and Kirk
Riley of Michigan State University, will summarize their study
and answer questions.
The program begins at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 2 at the
East Chicago Public Library, 2401 E. Columbus Drive.
The study by the Technical Outreach Services for
Communities (TOSC) program, based at Michigan State, was
funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
It looked at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to take
4.6 million cubic yards of polluted mud out of the harbor and
canal, which haven’t been dredged since 1972.
The most controversial aspect of the project is the Corps’
plan to put the dredged mud into a “confined disposal
facility” half a mile from two schools.
Critics say the Corps hasn’t adequately answered residents’
concerns about the health effects of fumes from the
contaminated mud.
“We’re not convinced that the air emissions will be at a
tolerable level unless they do something else,” Balanoff said.
The TOSC study’s authors concluded that the quality of the
dredging is more important than saying if its purpose is
navigational or environmental.
They also said there is no clear difference between the
environmental effects of using a clamshell dredge, as the
Corps plans, or a hydraulic dredge, which a U.S. Steel used in
cleaning five miles of the Grand Calumet River in Gary.
However, their report calls for more data on the health
effects of the dredging.
The actual start of dredging could be four years away.
Construction of the confined disposal facility is to be
completed in 2007, an Army Corps spokesman said, and the
dredging could start the next year.
Reporter Tim Zorn can be reached at 648-3073 ortzorn@post-trib.com
Public can offer views on dredging
of ship canal
