Federated Metals property named Superfund site
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The site of a former Federated Metals operation in Hammond has officially been added to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund National Priorities List, or NPL.
Our partners at The Times of Northwest Indiana report the facility, as well as properties in neighboring Whiting, were added to the list due to high levels of lead and other hazardous contaminants.
The NPL is a list of sites “where historic releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants pose significant threats to human health and the environment,” according to the EPA’s website.
The cities of Hammond and Whiting said earlier this year that the EPA was taking steps to make the Superfund designation.
Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott said while the designation was not unexpected, the EPA has not contacted the city about it.
“I haven’t talked to anybody at the EPA for a long, long time,” McDermott told the publication. “We (the city) were blindsided.”
Initial soil testing that started seven years ago indicated contamination at the Hammond site. The cities say the heaviest damage was found north of the facility, but “due to wind patterns, a large swath of midtown Whiting was discovered to have been contaminated as well.”
The cities say approximately 700 properties fell within the outfall of the contamination – almost 600 of said properties being located in Whiting.
Remediation efforts are expected to take “at least seven to 10 years,” according to McDermott. The EPA previously performed emergency remediation at 33 properties that were found to have high levels of dangerous heavy metals.
“(The Superfund designation is) going to make a lot more money available to us than would have been available with the current process. I think in the long-term it’s going to be a good thing,” McDermott told The Times. “Twenty years from now, property values will be higher. The problem is, it’s going to take a long time to get there.”
The EPA said the final boundaries of the Superfund site will be established following further investigation.
You can read the full story from The Times of Northwest Indiana’s Molly DeVore by clicking here.