The East Chicago Superfund Site Community Meeting for residents was held at the now defunct Carrie Gosch Elementary School. The school was closed at the beginning of the 2016-17 school year when lead was found in the soil around it. 
It’s a beautiful school. Built in 1999 (many new schools in the area were being built with money from the gambling boats) , it has marble floors, high ceilings, large cafeteria and auditorium, meeting rooms, and hardly looks used.It would be a shame not to clean up this building for re-use if it is at all possible. Talk has it that it may become a training center for the city. A loss to the children in the area but a gain for those to be trained.
This was the first meeting held since demolition began this week on the West Calumet Housing Development. The meeting was sponsored by the EPA and members of Region 5 were well represented.
So were the contractors who were demolishing the properties in Zone 1. John Blotsky, the head of the project for Amereco was there to respond to questions about the demolition. The others involved with the demolition wore their day glo orange safety vests so they could be easily spotted. 
Only about 25 community members showed up.
The meeting was divided into two sessions. The morning was devoted to statements by the EPA representatives providing updates on the actions being taken at the three zones of the Superfund Site. Q& A followed, first with questions that had been submitted previously, then by questions from those present in the audience.
EPA had brought in a consultant from New Jersey, Michael Lythcott, to oversee the meeting so there could be no bias. But it became very evident that there was a bias. At neither session was any representative of any of the governmental organizations involved an African American although the West Calumet Housing Development was about 90% black.
Speakers included Tom Alcamo, EPA Remedial Project Manager and Dan Haag, Sarah Rolfes, and Jacob Hassan, also representing EPA, all of whom reported on clean up progress in the three zones. Katherine Thomas, representing the Resource and Conservation Act (RCRA) program under the jurisdiction of the EPA, provided an update on dust sampling resulting from the demolition. Mark Johnson, representing the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), reported on the types of concerns that his agency was following up, including stroke and mental health problems resulting from ingestion of arsenic and lead.
Several things became evident.
A morass of governmental agencies and local businesses are involved in the project which makes it difficult for residents to determine which organization is responsible for what.
(a) EPA which is responsible for the clean up,
(b) RCRA which is an agency within EPA that is specifically charged with the management of hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste,
(c) CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) which is responsible for assessing the effect on public health of hazardous substances in the environment,
(d) the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM),
(e) HUD (The Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development) which was responsible for the residents in the West Calumet Housing Development,
(f) The City of East Chicago which determines all of the work in the Superfund site,
(g) Amereco Engineering, the contractor for the Housing Development Clean up and
(h) Brandenberg Industrial Services which is responsible for demolition of Zone 1 housing.
Communication between the residents and the various organizations has been a problem. Updated information is not being sent in what residents consider a timely manner. Nor does there seem to be a specific online site to which residents can turn which provides the latest information on the cleanup and to which they can post questions.
Detritus from the DuPont plant is causing fear among the residents. They are worried that toxic air from the site is blowing into their residences. They are also worried that children can wander onto the site itself.
As a result of the meeting, residents have a better idea of each organization’s responsibilities. Amereco attempted to reassure residents that care was being taken at the demolition site to eliminate toxic particles from blowing through the air to their homes and from water leaching into their properties. The agencies also responded to the problems of communication. Amereco agreed to conduct a tour of the demolition site to show residents where the air monitors were located and what they looked like.
The second half of the meeting in which residents were able to ask questions will be discussed in my next blog.