GARY, Indiana, August 23, 2004 (ENS) – In one of the nation's largest natural resource damage settlements, eight companies have agreed to pay roughly $56 million to partly restore natural resources in the Grand Calumet River and Indiana Harbor Canal.
Indiana Governor Joe Kernan, Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Cruden, and Assistant Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett disclosed details of the agreement Friday at Marquette Park along the Calumet River corridor, one of the most heavily industrialized areas of the country.
The Grand Calumet River, Indiana Harbor Canal and Indiana Harbor are part of the Lake Michigan ecosystem, and the riverside and upland habitats associated with these waters, including lands within the boundaries of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore are also affected by the contamination.
Studies showed that the releases contaminated the river's water and streambed, affecting migratory birds, fish, invertebrates and aquatic insects. Many advisories warning people not to eat the fish and waterfowl due to toxic contamination are in place in the area.
The most toxic metals contaminating the waterway are mercury and lead, and in addition, cadmium, copper, iron, manganese, and zinc are found in the sediments along with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
The settlement with the Indiana and U.S. governments, lodged by the U.S. Department of Justice, calls for cash payment of $53.65 million, permanent protection of 233 acres for fish and wildlife habitat, and $2.7 million to repay state and federal agencies for their damage assessment work.
The legal action that the payments will settle stemmed from studies started in 1996 by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to determine the extent of harm to habitat and wildlife that resulted from a century of releasing oil and other hazardous substances into the waterway.
Sediments throughout the area are contaminated at levels several times higher than what previous studies have shown to injure and destroy the organisms that inhabit the sediment, according to the Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan prepared for the USFWS by the firm Industrial Economics of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"Contaminated sediments impair the aquatic and adjacent upland ecosystems and the fish, migratory birds, and wildlife that inhabit them through direct exposure and uptake of contaminants through the food web," said Industrial Economics.
Settlement funds will be used to clean up, restore and protect the waterways and surrounding area, which include globally rare dune and swale habitat. Removal of contaminated sediments is the preferred approach to achieve restoration.
"This settlement will bring substantial benefits to communities along the Grand Calumet River and help restore areas contaminated over a century of industrial activity," said Cruden of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.
Cruden said the companies responsible for the contamination have shown their willingness to use their resources "for restoration rather than litigation."
"Today's announcement is the culmination of eight years of unprecedented cooperation between state, federal and local officials and businesses to clean up the Grand Calumet," Governor Kernan said. "Not only will this settlement enhance the tireless efforts of community groups in Northwest Indiana to restore this globally rare habitat, it also will strengthen the quality of life for generations to come in Northwest Indiana."
"This settlement is an example of unprecedented cooperation with companies to achieve restoration results," said Scarlett, Interior's assistant secretary for Policy, Management and Budget. "The agreement is the result of a significant partnership effort to restore natural resources and enhance an urban environment."
Kernan, Scarlett and other officials complimented the legal teams from federal and state agencies who worked through highly complex federal and state laws and negotiated for years to achieve agreement.
The settling companies are:
Atlantic Richfield Co. and ARCO Environmental Remediation, L.L.C. – $5.99 million
BP Products North America Inc. – $2.63 million
E.I. Du Pont De Nemours and Co. – $10.51 million
Exxon Mobil Corp. – $2.52 million
GATX Corp. – $2.42 million
Georgia-Pacific Corp. – $2.52 million
ISPAT-Inland Inc. – $8.30 million
United States Steel Corp. – $21.47 million
LTV Steel Co. was also a part of those discussions before declaring bankruptcy, and a substantial portion of the company's cost share was paid through the bankruptcy.
As part of another settlement with the state and federal governments, US Steel is dredging contaminated sediment from the first five miles of the Grand Calumet River and will restore land along that path. Exotic vegetation will be removed, native vegetation and trees will be planted, river-channel enhancements such as riffles, snags and structure for fish cover will be constructed; and the river banks will be contoured for erosion control. US Steel will also provide the trustees with over 100 acres of property to compensate for injuries to the area.
In a third separate settlement, the Hammond Sanitary District has provided $2.1 million and American Maize-Products, Lever Brothers, and Ferro corporations provided $4.7 million to clean up sediment contamination in the West Branch of the Grand Calumet River and address Clean Water Act violations.
While the current settlement will "minimize or eliminate the impact of existing contaminated sediments," Industrial Economics said in the plan document, "control of future hazardous substances releases is critical to the process of restoring this resource."
Not part of the current settlement, the plan relies on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Indiana to limit or eliminate further releases of oil and other hazardous substances to the Grand Calumet River and Indiana Harbor Canal.
While it is comprehensive, the current settlement does not address ground water resources in the assessment area because they are not used as a public drinking water supply.
But a 2002 study by the U.S. Geological Survey confirms that ground water in the watershed is contaminated with a wide variety of chemical contaminants and it discharges to the major surface water bodies such as the Grand Calumet River, Indiana Harbor Canal, and Lake Michigan.
The Grand Calumet River, originating in the east end of Gary, Indiana, flows 13 miles (21 kilometers) through the industrialized cities of Gary, East Chicago and Hammond. The majority of the river's flow drains into Lake Michigan via the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, sending about one billion gallons of water into the lake per day, according to the EPA.
The Area of Concern begins 15 miles (24 km) south of downtown Chicago and includes the east branch of the river, a small segment of the west branch and the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal. Today, 90 percent of the river's flow originates as municipal and industrial effluent, cooling and process water and storm water overflows.
The Grand Calumet River and Indiana Harbor and Canal contain five to 10 million cubic yards (3.9 to 7.7 million cubic meters) of contaminated sediment up to 20 feet (6 m) deep.
Find out more about the Grand Calumet online at: http://www.epa.gov/greatlakes/aoc/grandcal.html
Read about The Grand Calumet River Restoration Fund at: http://www.in.gov/idem/land/federal/nrda/grandcalumet/ Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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