HAMMOND | Cleanup of the Grand Calumet River, a former industrial sewer running through the heart of the city, has begun, with the first scoops of polluted sediment pulled from the bottom as early as this weekend.
Crews will work westward from Columbia Avenue, digging down 3 feet into mud contaminated by pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, benzene, xylene, toluene, mercury, lead and other cancer-causing or toxic materials, and then hauling the mess away.
Sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the remediation project aims to remove close to 82,000 cubic yards of the polluted river bottom -- last dredged in 1895 -- all the way to Hohman Avenue.
Some $21.5 million of the total $33.1 million cost of the Hammond river cleanup is covered through the federal Great Lakes Legacy Act, a law enacted by Congress in 2002 to restore beneficial uses to polluted areas of the Great Lakes.
The remaining $11.6 million comes from fines collected from polluting industries into an account administered by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Plans call for covering the exposed river bottom with a plastic liner infused with carbon particles, and then 2 feet of clean sand and gravel, to permanently separate any remaining toxins from the restored aquatic habitat above.
The first phase of the cleanup extends to Calumet Avenue, said Scott Ireland, manager with the EPA's Great Lakes National Program Office, which administers Legacy Act funding, and it should be completed in June.
A team of 25 will work through the winter, said Mike Lock, project manager with Sevenson Environmental Services Inc. in Merrillville, a time frame chosen not only because the river is then at its lowest levels, but below-freezing temperatures keep odors down.
People nevertheless sometimes will smell odors, said John Dirgo, with engineering consultant Sultrac, a joint venture of two California-based environmental remediation specialists.
An array of air monitors around the river will sample the air for dangerous levels of chemicals during the work, Dirgo said, and dredging will stop in the unlikely event that local air quality is affected.
Residents also will see trucks. Plans call for 20 trucks a day to move wet sediment to a drying area just west of the Irving Little League and Babe Ruth baseball fields, and then take the dry dirt to the Newton County Landfill for disposal.
Timing of the second phase -- from Calumet Avenue to Hohman Avenue -- depends on when the Hammond Sanitary District can begin construction of an EPA-ordered 25 million-gallon stormwater retention basin to prevent further pollution of the river.
A large water main needs to be installed to bring stormwater from two west side pumping stations to the new 14-acre basin, and the construction is scheduled to coincide with the Calumet-to-Hohman phase of the river remediation.
Sanitary District Manager Michael Unger said he is working with the EPA to kick-start the $23 million project, and Sultrac's Dirgo said current remediation plans call for the second phase to begin shortly after the end of next year's baseball season.
The Grand Calumet River cleanup is the first Great Lakes Legacy Act project in Indiana. Six others worth $120 million have been completed in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio.
