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GARY, Ind. (AP) — U.S. Steel plans to spend $1.4 million to build 11 wells at its Gary Works complex to capture and treat benzene-tainted groundwater before it enters Lake Michigan. The water has been leaking into the lake for months, The Times of Munster reported Thursday. Officials discovered the contaminated water last summer while analyzing soil and groundwater. Neither U.S. Steel nor U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials know how much benzene has entered the lake. The company found benzene levels of 1 to 3 parts per million in groundwater monitoring wells near the affected water, said EPA project manager Tamara Ohl. “It’s not a level that’s showing any immediate risk,” Ohl said. “But it’s high enough.” The EPA’s threshold for the amount of benzene allowed in drinking water is 5 parts per billion. Ohl said the benzene likely would become diluted when it went into the lake. But neither U.S. Steel nor EPA officials have tested lake water to determine if the chemical has been diluted. “Clearly, we don’t want a situation where benzene is going into the lake,” Ohl said. Officials believe the benzene came from an old tank farm at the coke plant that was removed years ago and the flow of tainted water was aided by a crack in a lake breakwall circling the plant. Repairing the wall, which would require a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit, would not fix the tainted groundwater problem, said U.S. Steel spokesman Charles Rice. U.S. Steel is expected to submit a treatment plan to state and federal environmental regulators by the end of this month. Plant officials said they hope to have the system operational by the summer or fall.
Posted 1/2/2009
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