A 30-day public comment period for changes to the cleanup plan for the MIDCO I and MIDCO II Superfund sites in Gary is underway.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would like to move from pumping and treating the contaminated groundwater at the MIDCO sites to relying on natural processes to reduce the remaining contamination, according to Greg Gehrig, EPA remedial project manager in charge of cleanup.
The natural process is expected to take 25 years at the MIDCO I site at 7400 W. 15th Ave., and more than 100 years at the MIDCO II site at 5900 Industrial Highway, Gehrig said.
The EPA conducted a virtual public hearing April 14 regarding the proposed changes to the cleanup plan. No members of the public participated in the hearing.
The MIDCO sites were former industrial waste storage, recycling and disposal facilities that left the soil and groundwater contaminated. The EPA has been involved in the removal of thousands of drums containing hazardous wastes, as well as tanks, contaminated soil and the debris at the MIDCO sites.
Gehrig said fires in 1970 at both locations destroyed 70,000 drums of hazardous waste. Run off from the properties flows into the Grand Calumet River.
The EPA took from 1981 to 1989 to remove the materials at MIDCO I and from 1983 to 1986 from MIDCO II. EPA has worked since 1985 to identify the potential responsible parties for the contamination, which largely represent companies who sent waste to the sites. A cleanup plan was selected in 1992 to address volatile organic compounds and semi-volatile organic compounds including polyaromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls and inorganic constituents including metals and cyanide, substances all found in soil and groundwater.
Several minor modifications have been made since.
“The pump and treat plan has worked but it hasn’t been able to reach cleanup levels everywhere (At the sites),” Gehrig said.
Gary has enacted a city ordinance prohibiting ground water use at the sites. There also are no residential properties affected by the sites making it a candidate for monitored natural attenuation.
If the changes to the cleanup plan are approved, monitoring at the site would continue.
“Indiana supports the potentially responsible parties continued monitoring, maintenance and sampling at the site until it is complete,” Gehrig said.
If monitored natural attenuation does not appear to be working, alternate action will be taken. It will cost about $1.2 million at each site to implement the new plan. EPA will take into the record public comment and reply in a responsiveness summary. EPA will then issue a record of decision with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and if selected the MNA plan will be implemented.
Public comment will be accepted through May 11.
Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
