Rev. Marie Siroky, Ron Adams, and Cris Alvarez with Atty. David Chizewer

Stories We Liked in 2016: Superheroes needed in East Chicago lead-contamination disaster

Contributed By:The 411 News

East Chicago doesn’t have a newspaper or radio station says Maritza Lopez about what she calls little communication and information about the environmental disaster in her city. “We have ECTV, but everyone can’t see it.” ECTV is the local public access channel.

As the crisis spreads from one section of East Chicago’s Calumet neighborhood to the next, a team of superheroes could be the only savior for residents living on the lands designated as the EPA’s US Smelter and Lead superfund cleanup site.

The first area hit by the crisis was brought to its knees in August. West Calumet Housing complex is being emptied and Carrie Gosch Elementary School is closed because of the extremely high levels of lead in the soils they sit on.

A legion of EPA officials and toxicology professionals came to Riley Park in Lopez’s East Calumet neighborhood on Saturday, September 24 to hear residents concerns, answer questions, and give information on cleanup. “We had been living under a false sense of security,” Lopez said, “looking at the contaminated soil as a problem that’s happening over there – in West Calumet.”

Her neighbor Ray Crenshaw, who lives at 4917 Drummond, said the EPA took soil samplings in his yard in 2015. “I just got the results last week,” he said. Joe Popovich repeated a similar situation for his rental property in the 4800 block of Drummond. Both wondered why it took so long.

“I just had to tell my tenants not to let their kids play in the back yard,” Popovich said. “The back yard is terrible, but the front yard is fine.”

Mark Johnson, representing the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) told the Riley audience, “It is suspected that some fill was placed in yards from a contaminated source.”

Environmental and housing policy attorneys from several university-based law centers and law clinics in Chicago have volunteered to provide advice and advocate, pro bono, for residents in Calumet.

The advisers met Saturday, October 1 with Calumet residents – the majority of them from the eastern side of the superfund site. Many had just received an EPA notification that cleanup would begin immediately. The next day, Sunday, excavation teams were near Lopez’s house digging up a yard in the 4900 block of Euclid. Work crews will dig down 2 feet to permanently remove soil that is contaminated with lead or arsenic, or both. Crews will replace grass and landscaping with certified clean soil and sod.

Ronald Adams owns 2 homes in Calumet. “I cannot legally sell my houses if they are contaminated with lead. I’m worried about my property values.”

Cris Alvarez has a vacant lot on his block. “When we have heavy rains, the waters rush back to where the houses and sewers are. What are we going to do if the soil in the lot is contaminated?”

“My kids grew up here and left,” said Crenshaw. He and his wife Betty have lived in Calumet 41 years. Now he wonders about their children’s physical health.

Three zones make up the superfund site. The public housing complex and school are in Zone 1, at the western end of the cleanup site. By choosing to close the school and relocate the residents of the housing complex, the City of East Chicago turned down EPA’s plans for cleanup in Zone 1. East Chicago’s Mayor Anthony Copeland decided West Calumet Housing will be demolished after all residents are relocated.

EPA soil testing showed one yard in the complex had 91,000 parts per million (ppm) of lead in its soil. EPA requires cleanup when lead concentrations in surface soil are above 400 ppm.

In Zones 2 and 3 are residences, churches, and businesses – the ones who can’t just leave.

Adams’ properties are in Zone 2. The homes of Lopez, Crenshaw, and Popovich are in Zone 3.

So far, EPA has sampled soil at all 411 residences in Zone 3 where residents provided access. EPA’s soil tests in May 2015 and September 2016 show that about 60 percent of the yards in the eastern zone have either lead or arsenic concentrations – or both – above EPA’s action levels for cleanup.

EPA officials said they will work on the most heavily contaminated yards for cleanup this year. The priority cleanups will be at 19 properties in Zone 3 where lead concentrations are above 1200 ppm and arsenic concentrations above 68 ppm.

Debbie Chizewer, from Northwestern University’s Environmental Advocacy Center, told residents at the October 1 meeting at the American Legion Post 369, “We are going to make sure the cleanups are done appropriately. Make sure that inside all of the homes, EPA is taking proper precautions to protect you during the cleanup.” Because of past flooding in east Calumet, Chizewer said there is a concern that basements may have been affected by waters contaminated with lead. “We will ask EPA to test inside these homes.”

The legal advisors are urging Calumet residents and community organizations to come together under a single community advisory group. “That way we can push as a community for change and more protection,” Chizewer said. That suggestion came from the EPA. Two resident groups, “Calumet Lives Matter” and “We the People of East Chicago” formed in recent months in response to the environmental disaster.

David Chizewer, from the law firm Goldberg Kohn said, “We can provide litigation to support the law clinics if they have to go to court. We will donate our services.” If individual Calumet residents want to file a lawsuit, Chizewer said his firm could also provide them with advice.

Katie Walz, of the Shriver Center on Poverty Law said the center filed a civil rights complaint against the East Chicago Housing Authority for its housing relocation plan. “We expect an answer soon on our concerns about the lack of services and support offered to families who are being relocated.”

Left unanswered was Adams’ question, “Why wasn’t Zone 2 included in the cleanup plan?”

“In the court documents from 2014, even the judge asked about Zone 2,” Debbie Chizewer explained. “The attorney for the EPA only said it would be done later.” She was referring to the consent decree signed by the oil company Atlantic Richfield and the chemical company E.I. Du Pont De Nemours to pay $26 million for the cleanup.

Adams said he knows, “… because it is poor and it is all black.”

Last month, EPA began taking soil samples in Zone 2. According to its website, EPA is preparing to begin cleanups this fall.

Story Posted:12/31/2016