Northwest Indiana residents will have a chance to express concerns about the Federated Metals superfund site at a public hearing in Whiting next week.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is hosting a public hearing at Whiting High School from 6 to 7:45 p.m. March 26. The hearing will focus on a cleanup plan to remove lead from yards of about 160 homes near the former Federated Metals facility, according to the EPA website.
The EPA plans to remove soil at properties where sampling found concentrations of lead higher than 200 parts per million. The agency will accept public comments on the plan from March 16 to April 15, according to the EPA.
As part of the cleanup plan, the EPA plans to remove up to 12 inches of soil underground at selected properties, dispose of the soil at an approved landfill, cover soil with a visual barrier if the site team finds contaminated soil below 12 inches, backfill excavated areas with up to 12 inches of clean topsoil and restore yards.
In June 2025, the EPA said it planned to sample 250 homes primarily in the Whiting-Robertsdale area for toxic soil. The former Federated Metals property was named a superfund site in late 2023, according to Post-Tribune archives.
Nearly 10,000 people live within a mile of the property in Whiting and Hammond’s Robertsdale neighborhood, according to Post-Tribune archives. The site is also near a bike trail, parks, a church and Calumet College of St. Joseph.
According to the EPA website, in late March, the agency plans to expand its residential soil sampling to areas north of Lakeview Avenue and Steiber Street. EPA officials will provide sampling results to property owners who give approval to sample their soil.
David Dabertin, a Hammond lawyer and former regional director of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, called the situation a travesty.
“They’re including properties where they just built brand new homes,” Dabertin said. “How in the world can they be part of a superfund site when all their soils were removed, and they excavated the whole area?”
Dabertin is also disappointed that the cleanup has been delayed this long, he said. He plans to be at Thursday’s public hearing.
“This whole thing is a disaster,” Dabertin said. “At one point, we could have had the whole thing cleaned up — everybody’s yards could have been cleaned up.”
Carolyn Marsh, an environmental advocate and Whiting resident, said she was surprised to see EPA plans to expand the cleanup area. However, she believes it’s a good move for the agency.
“I’m glad they’re going to clean up 160 properties,” Marsh said. “It’s polluted and contaminated with lead and arsenic, but they’re not at that high threshold. I think it’s a good thing (to clean up) because nobody should live with the threat of these contaminants.”
It’s interesting that the EPA is having a hearing at the same time that the Chicago Bears have shown interest in a new stadium in Hammond, Marsh said. The potential site would include Lost Marsh Golf Course, which is located across George Lake from the Superfund site. She’s concerned it might take longer to clean up residential properties if the area is focused on getting the Bears stadium.
“I’m wondering if it’s a gimmick to say the area is going to be cleaned up at a federal expense, which is a taxpayer expense,” she added.
Federated Metals, located at 2230 Indianapolis Boulevard, was a metal smelting, refining, recovering and recycling facility for about 50 years along George Lake. The facility was originally owned and operated by Federated Metals Corp. until it was sold to HBR Partnership in 1985 and used by multiple businesses, including Northern Indiana Metals and Whiting Metals, according to Post-Tribune archives.
The operation was permanently shut down in 2020. According to the EPA, smelter operations have emitted lead, arsenic and other heavy metals from their buildings and waste piles.
From 2016 to 2018, soil samples taken by the EPA found 163 yards with soil lead levels above 400 parts per million, according to Post-Tribune archives, and they’ve found properties with lead levels at least three times above the benchmark.
The agency removed contaminated soil from 33 residential properties in Whiting and Hammond with lead levels above 1,200 parts per million or were home to pregnant women or children younger than seven years old in 2018 and 2019, according to Post-Tribune archives. The city of Hammond launched a soil removal project in 2021, with $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, and by 2024, it cleaned up 69 properties.
