Federal officers are withdrawing a deliberate enlargement of a lakeside dump on the Southeast Facet after group opposition and a lawsuit, saying they’ll search for a brand new website to retailer contaminated materials dredged from the close by Calumet River.
The U.S. Military Corps of Engineers spent years planning to construct on prime of an underwater landfill generally known as a “confined disposal facility” at the same time as a group group and a parks advocacy group challenged the concept.
The Corps is accountable for ensuring that the underside of the Calumet River — a serious waterway for business transport out and in of Chicago — is deep sufficient to permit boats to simply navigate the water. The dredged sediment from the underside has been saved for many years simply north of Calumet Park alongside the lake close to the river.
The issue is that the storage space is sort of full and there must be a spot to retailer the extra materials scooped from the river backside.
In an announcement, the Military Corps stated it will work with the town to “discover a sustainable and possible various.”
“This is excellent information for Chicagoans and all of us who care about defending wholesome communities and Lake Michigan,” stated Howard Learner, who heads the Chicago-based Environmental Regulation & Coverage Heart and fought the Military Corps plan in court docket. “There are higher options and higher options than what the Corps has insisted on doing for the final seven years.”
Learner filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of Illinois on behalf of the group group Alliance for the Southeast and Pals of the Parks two years in the past.
Among the many issues are the security of Lake Michigan and residents uncovered to contaminated materials. Mercury and the long-banned industrial chemical substances polychlorinated biphenyls, generally generally known as PCBs, are among the many contaminants within the dredge.
The dredged-material dump, which is partly underwater in a pond, is designed to filter after which discharge clear water again into the river whereas the dredged materials stays contained.
The positioning was truly purported to be closed, capped and was parkland in 1995, however placement of the river dredging there has continued.
A timetable for a way quickly a park might be created on the website just isn’t but identified.
