Local Shutdown Woes: EPA Cancels East Chicago Lead Contamination Hearing

Local Shutdown Woes: EPA Cancels East Chicago Lead Contamination Hearing

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As the partial shutdown of the federal government reaches its 13th day, East Chicago is one local community that’s feeling the pain.

The Environmental Protection Agency was scheduled to hold a public hearing on its remediation plan for a Superfund site that includes the West Calumet Housing complex in the town on Jan. 10, but the meeting was cancelled 10 days ahead due to the shutdown.

The EPA’s plan to address lead and arsenic poisoning in the soil and groundwater is complex and controversial, but residents say they have had too little time to weigh in before the public comment period ends on Jan. 14.

Morning Shift talks with an environmental lawyer and advocate as well as a local resident about what’s at stake in East Chicago and how much of a wrench the shutdown is throwing into the process.

GUESTS: Debbie Chizewer, Montgomery Foundation Environmental Law Fellow at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law

Thomas Frank, co-founder of Calumet Lives Matter, environmental justice advocate

LEARN MORE: EPA Cancels Hearing On Contaminated East Chicago Site (ABC-7 Chicago 1/2/19)

7 years later, new study shows East Chicago kids exposed to more lead because of flawed government report (Chicago Tribune8/20/18)