Cleanup of toxic NW Indiana lagoon moving ahead

GARY, Ind. (AP) - The cleanup of a 17-acre lagoon filled with a toxic stew of chemicals is shifting into high gear in northwestern Indiana following decades of delays and debate over how to handle the site.

Gary's Ralston Street lagoon might appear tranquil and inviting to motorists traveling along the Indiana Toll Road, but the site is filled with cancer-causing PCBs — polychlorinated biphenyls — that were banned in 1976, as well as other chemicals.

The lagoon has languished for decades as the city postponed decisions on its fate and regulators studied the site, which they fear could pose a health risk if the chemicals leached into ground or surface water.

The Post-Tribune of Merrillville reports (http://bit.ly/LdiF3b ) that because of its size — the lagoon contains more than a half-million cubic yards of sludge — trucking the waste to a landfill was determined not to be an option.

"It would fill Soldier Field and rise to 200 feet high," said Daniel F. Vicari, an environmental engineer with CDM Smith, the company overseeing the cleanup. "They realized there's no magic bullet."

Vicari said the decision was made to cap and stabilize the toxic waste on-site.

Over the next couple months, a "long stick" excavator that arrived at the lagoon site on six flatbed trucks will scoop out a 60-foot deep trench around the lagoon.

Piping installed by local laborers will then transfer a slurry mix of Bentonite clay powder and water to backfill the trench as the excavator digs to create a slurry wall which will form a bowl around the lagoon. It will effectively prevent any contamination from leaching out.

Vicari said the wall construction should take about 11 weeks. Crews have set up three air monitoring stations around the lagoon to check for PCBs and benzenes as the work progresses.

The first phase should be done by November before work begins on solidifying the sludge and capping it — a process that could last until 2017.

The Gary Sanitary District agreed to clean up the sludge in a federal consent decree ordered in 1986. Trucks owned by the district dumped much of the sludge decades ago, before the risks of PCBs were known.

But Vicari and Michael Mikulka, a senior environmental engineer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who's monitoring the project, suspect there were some "midnight" industrial waste dumpers adding to the lagoon's toxic levels. Those illegal dumpers were never caught.

The EPA had tangled with the city over the cleanup for more than two decades, but in 2009, the agency ordered a $67 million containment plan for the sludge. Tests showed high levels of PCBs in the sludge but none in the groundwater.

Gary taxpayers are paying for the EPA-supervised cleanup. Last year, the City Council approved a 30 percent hike in stormwater fees to cover a $27.5 million bond for the project.

The lagoon abuts the Grand Calumet River and its stew of toxic sludge sits in the glide path of jets taking off from the Gary/Chicago International Airport.