PORTAGE, Ind. (AP) — Environmental groups are urging northwest Indiana residents to comment on a proposed federal settlement over a U.S. Steel plant’s discharging of a potentially carcinogenic chemical that entered a Lake Michigan tributary.
The (Northwest Indiana) Times reports that the public comment period on the proposed settlement ends June 6. Save the Dunes and the Ogden Dunes Environmental Advisory Board will host a public meeting Wednesday about the settlement.
That settlement calls for U.S. Steel to pay nearly $900,000 in fines and penalties for spills at its Midwest Plant in Portage, daily tests for hexavalent chromium, create a preventative maintenance program and upgrade pollution monitoring.
One spill in April 2017 resulted in almost 300 pounds of hexavalent chromium dumped into the Burns Waterway, which feeds into Lake Michigan.
