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| A fence separates United States Steel Gary Works plant from the beach at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore October 12, 2007 in Gary, Indiana. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) |
Posted: Saturday, 31 October 2009 9:08AM
U.S. Steel sprays contaminated wastewater at Gary site
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GARY, Ind. (STNG) -- U.S. Steel announced Thursday it has been spraying contaminated wastewater collected from the bottom of its hazardous waste landfill into the air over the landfill for a week -- and will continue to do so through November.
The landfill holds sediment dredged from the Grand Calumet River contaminated with mercury and possible cancer-causing pollutants, such as benzene, naphthalene and polychlorinated biphenyls. The 20-foot tall landfill is located within a quarter of a mile of residential neighborhoods.
The announcement was a shock to several attendants at U.S. Steel's quarterly citizens meeting in Gary Thursday, who didn't know about the project.
"This is what I would call a big surprise. And not a good one," Save the Dunes member Charlotte Read said. "It sounds like it's more air pollution for the neighborhood... It's a zero discharge for water. It's not a zero discharge for air. You're recycling contaminated water one way or the other."
U.S. Steel officials say the project is a pilot program that will continue until Nov. 30, with sprinklers running eight hours a day three days a week. The 16 spray heads sprinkle 250 gallons per minute or 112,000 gallons in a day.
Dorreen Carey, director of the Gary Department of Environmental Affairs, questioned why the citizens haven't been told about the project before.
"Since it's been on the drawing board, why not?" she said. "No one reviewed the potential impact of it. It's not our expectation of how that part of the production is handled."
U.S. Steel suggested the sprinkler system to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management because the company had periodical problems complying with ammonia levels in its wastewater permit when treating the water. IDEM approved.
"IDEM got back to us and said they didn't have an issue, we'd be in compliance," said Doug Boyea, manager of corrective action with U.S. Steel. "The actual retention time it (the water) has in the slag, the iron layer, takes out all the metals."
Chuck Rice, a spokesman for U.S. Steel, said the company has not reported to IDEM what's in the water.
"We are collecting analytical data. Emissions from sprinklers is -- using worst-case scenario -- 'insignificant activity'" under on state law, he said.
Rice said leached water is sprayed within the berms of the landfill, which is known as a corrective action management unit (CAMU).
Rice said U.S. Steel is still monitoring air pollution around the landfill.
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