CHICAGO (April 7, 2004) -- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Region 5 announced today that the companies responsible for ground-water
contamination in the Town
of Pines, Ind., immediately west of Michigan
City, have agreed to pay for new municipal water connections for
most households in the community.
The water service is the key development among a series of future
steps outlined in a pair of consent orders signed by EPA and four
responsible companies: NIPSCO, Brown Inc., Ddalt Corp. and Bulk
Transport Corp.
"Over the past two years, the responsible parties have spent
nearly $2 million to bring Michigan City water to about 130 homes," said
Acting Regional Administrator Bharat Mathur. "Despite this
effort, we continued to find evidence of contaminated drinking
water in other parts of the town. This action should address the
situation."
Under the terms of the orders, the responsible parties have agreed
to immediately supply bottled water to a second group of about
140 additional homes, pending connection to the Michigan City municipal
water system. As a result, most of the town will soon be receiving
city water.
A pair of public meetings to discuss the water hook-ups will be
held April 13, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m., at the Michigan
City Public Library, 100 E. 4th St. The meetings will include a
presentation by EPA and Indiana Department of Environmental Management
officials, followed by a question-and-answer session.
Separate from the 140 homes set to receive Michigan City water,
about 70 other homes will receive bottled water as a precautionary
measure. These include residences in the far western corner of
Pines in a triangular area encompassing Pine, Poplar and Highway
12; and residences south of Highway 20 on Old Railroad, South Railroad,
on Ardendale to Old Chicago, and about one-half mile southwest
along Old Chicago. Under the second consent order, provisions for
this group of homes may be revised in the future, following a long-term
study EPA has requested from the potentially responsible parties
to assess human health and ecological risks associated with the
site.
"These agreements ensure that Pines residents will immediately
have safe, clean water," said IDEM Commissioner Lori F. Kaplan. "IDEM
has been working with the responsible parties to resolve this situation
since it was first discovered. I'm pleased the companies have agreed
to the solution we sought from the beginning."
The two agreements also mean that it will no longer be necessary
to consider naming the community to EPA's Superfund National Priorities
List.
Design work for the water hook-up project is expected to begin
in a few weeks, with construction to follow in the spring and continuing
into 2005. Work on the long-term study will also begin soon. EPA
will oversee both the water hook-up project and the long-term study
with support from IDEM.
In a separate matter, EPA announced yesterday that it will provide
bottled water as a precautionary measure to Pine Elementary School.
The school is about 3/4-mile outside of the Town of Pines. Recent
sampling of the school's drinking water well showed readings for
boron below EPA's action level and readings for molybdenum slightly
above EPA's action level. The water will be delivered this week,
while the school is closed for spring break.
For about 30 years, the Yard 520 landfill, which is south of Pines,
received hundreds of thousands of tons of industrial waste fly
ash. Fly ash was also used as fill material in and around the community.
Boron and other hazardous materials traced to fly ash have affected
private water wells throughout the town.
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