Tag Archives: us steel

Beaches reopened at Indiana Dunes Lakeshore following spill

PORTAGE, Ind. (AP) — The National Park Service has reopened three beaches at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore after tests showed no significant traces of a potentially carcinogenic chemical from a U.S. Steel Corp. wastewater spill.

The park service says water and beach sand samples taken last week came back below laboratory reporting limits for hexavalent chromium, so it reopened the beaches Monday afternoon.

The Environmental Protection Agency says U.S. Steel resumed full operations Monday at its Midwest Plant in Portage, about 30 miles east of Chicago. The company began a gradual restart there Friday, three days after an expansion joint failed, allowing wastewater containing the chemical to flow into the wrong treatment plant at the Portage complex. That wastewater eventually flowed into Burns Waterway at a point about 100 yards from Lake Michigan.

 
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Deal proposed in 3-state pollution suit against US Steel

CHICAGO (AP) — A proposed settlement has been announced in a 2012 pollution lawsuit brought by the federal government, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan against U.S. Steel Corporation.

The Department of Justice says in a Tuesday statement that, as part of a settlement, U.S. Steel would reduce pollution at three iron and steel plants in the Midwest — in Gary, Indiana; Ecorse, Michigan; and Granite City, Illinois.

The settlement filed in Hammond-based U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana is subject to final approval by a judge.

U. S. Steel would spend nearly $2 million on seven environmental projects. That includes removing light fixtures in schools containing toxic chemicals.

It also commits to spending $800,000 on removing contaminated transformers at its Gary and Ecorse facilities. It’ll pay a $2.2 million civil penalty.

 

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.