EPA proposes removing 671 East Chicago, Indiana, residences from Superfund List

(Si usted prefiere recibir esta información en español, por favor comuníquese con Charles Rodriguez al 312-886-7472, o rodriguez.charles@epa.gov.)

EAST CHICAGO, Ind. (July 8, 2020) — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the removal of 671 cleaned-up properties at the USS Lead Site from the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). EPA will take public comments on its proposal from July 8 - August 7, 2020.

To date, lead-contaminated soil has been removed from 95% of the 1,078 properties – mostly residential – in Zones 2 and 3 at the USS Lead Superfund Site. The agency has confirmed that 671 of these properties meet the cleanup level required by a 2012 federal legal agreement, as amended in 2018. These properties have no contamination at-depth and are cleared for residential use. No further action is necessary at these properties, and they pose no unacceptable risk to human health and the environment.

The remaining properties in Zones 2 and 3 will stay on the NPL until lead soil cleanups have been completed and confirmed. EPA continues to investigate possible groundwater contamination in the area.

“EPA is keeping its promise to the people of East Chicago to remove lead from their homes and to improve public health in their hometown by picking up the pace of this Superfund cleanup,” said EPA Regional Administrator Kurt Thiede. “And we will keep up that momentum in East Chicago until we finish the job at all the remaining properties.”

Residential properties removed from the USS Lead Superfund Site may be eligible for funding through the city of East Chicago’s Residential Repair Program. Delisting would also enable the city to redevelop vacant lots.

The NPL tracks the nation’s most contaminated sites that threaten human health or the environment. Sites on the list are eligible for cleanup under the Superfund program. EPA removes sites or parts of sites from the list once all the remedies are successfully implemented with no further cleanup. Operations and maintenance, monitoring and five-year reviews continue as required.

Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-SFUND-2008-0577, by one of the following methods:

• Online. www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA_FRDOC_0001-25646

Follow on-line instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. The EPA may publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be accompanied by a written comment. The written comment is considered the official comment and should include discussion of all points you wish to make. The EPA will generally not consider comments or comment contents located outside of the primary submission (i.e. on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system). For additional submission methods, the full EPA public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.

• Email. Submit your comments via email to Karen Cibulskis, NPL Deletion Coordinator at cibulskis.karen@epa.gov.
• Written comments submitted by mail are temporarily suspended and no hand deliveries will be accepted. We encourage the public to submit comments via email or at www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA_FRDOC_0001-25646
• Phone. You may also leave an oral comment by calling 312-353-6284. Only comments regarding the proposed delisting will be considered

The complete NPL Deletion Docket containing deletion-related documents can be viewed at the following link: NPL Partial Deletion Docket.

• EPA Fact Sheet - EPA Proposes Removing East Chicago Residential Properties From National List Of Superfund Sites (4 pp, 829 K, About PDF) Jul. 2020
• EPA Fact Sheet (Spanish Version) - La EPA Propone Eliminar Propiedades Residenciales En East Chicago De Lista Nacional De Sitios Superfund (4 pp, 388.5 K, About PDF) Jul. 2020