HAMMOND | Environmental scientists are finalizing plans for the first cleanup of the Grand Calumet River in the heart of the city.
The project aims to remove more than 130,000 cubic yards of sediment -- considered among the most polluted in the Great Lakes -- and return the waterway between Columbia and Hohman avenues to a more natural ecosystem.
An agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources has dedicated up to $1 million to develop final design plans and specifications for the cleanup.
That section of the river was last dredged in 1895, and a century of steel mill, petroleum, chemical and other industrial discharges has left the sediments contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, pesticides, phenols, mercury, lead and other cancer-causing or toxic materials.
"We're looking at remedial design first," said Scott Ireland, manager with the EPA Great Lakes National Program Office. "The dredging technology, treatment of the material, and where to place the material after treatment."
About $7 million collected through enforcement actions against polluting industries in the city will be used as a local match for $13 million sought through the federal Great Lakes Legacy Act program to fund the $20 million project.
Design plans should be completed early next year, Ireland said, and if the project meets EPA selection criteria, actual work on the river could begin shortly thereafter.
"We want to be as cost-effective as possible," Ireland said, and engineers working for the EPA's Super Fund office should have firm estimates ready next month.
Any improvement along the river is good, said Ron Novak, executive director of the Hammond Department of Environmental Management.
"Resolution of the issue is very important to the city of Hammond," Novak said. "(The project) will positively impact all adjacent properties and enhance usability and recreational possibilities, and improve residents' quality of life."
The Hammond Sanitary District also will contribute to the cleanup through its elimination of combined sewer overflows into the river.
Older sections of the city's sewer system still carry combined sanitary and stormwater, and heavy rains regularly overwhelm the district's waste water treatment plant, forcing an untreated mixture of stormwater, residential and industrial waste to be released into the river.
Final EPA approval of the district's plan to end combined sewer overflows by building a 25-million-gallon storage basin on 14 acres along the river just west of Columbia Avenue is expected soon.
"The pieces are all falling into place," said Michael Unger, sanitary district manager. "Remove the CSOs (combined sewer overflows) and then go on to remediation."
