Abstract
The Grand Calumet River AOC is a thirteen-mile industrial sewer of toxic poison that flows into Lake Michigan, south of Chicago. It contains five Superfund sites and several other EPA CERCLA cleanup arrangements with polluting companies. It encompasses an economically depressed area of three cities—Calumet City, East Chicago, and Gary Indiana—with little resident-citizen involvement in its restoration. The EPA, state agencies, and other private institutions are, however, pursuing environmental restorations despite significant problems. They are remediating areas of toxic sediment and restoring natural habitat. These efforts are both necessary and heroic in extent and importance.
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Notes
- 1.
See Lydersen (2013, January 6).
- 2.
The construction of the Erie Canal in the 1830s linked Lake Erie to the Hudson River at Albany, NY. This began the construction of canal networks in the Midwestern states.
- 3.
See Hurley (1995, p. 34).
- 4.
See Ingersoll, et al. (2002, pp. 156–167).
- 5.
For a similar recounting, see DeBruler (2015), “US Steel: Gary Works,” in Industrial History, at http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2014/05/introduction.html.
- 6.
A grant of $313.4 million from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
- 7.
See Reese, Sara (9/4/2016, updated 4/2022), “Lead in East Chicago: Old lead smelter site went unaddressed for years,” Town News Content Exchange at nwitimes.com.
- 8.
See Ishak, December 16, 2019.
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
Ibid.
- 11.
See Pooler, January 2019.
- 12.
See Argus, October 29, 2021, at https://www.argusmedia.com/metals-platform/newsandanalysis/article/.
- 13.
Ibid.
References
Hurley, Andrew. (1995), Environmental Inequalities: Class, Race, and Industrial Pollution in Gary. Indiana: University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC.
Ingersoll, C.G., D.D. MacDonald, W.G. Brumbaugh, W.G. Johnson, B.T. Kemble, et al. (2002), “Toxicity Assessment of Sediments from the Grand Calumet River and Indiana Harbor Canal,” Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. 43 (2): 156–167. (https://www.worldcat.org.issn/0090-4341).
Ishak, Natasha and Jaclyn Anglis (December 16, 2019), “33 Haunting Photos of Gary Indiana—The Most Miserable City in America,” ati, at https://allthatsinteresting.com/gary-indiana.
Lydersen, Kari (2013, January 26), “Grand Calumet River Delivers Toxic Load to Lake Michigan,” WBEZ, Chicago, (https://www.wbez.org/news/grand-calumet-river-delivers-toxic-load-lake-michigan-105165)
Pooler, Michael (January 2019), “Cleaning up steel is key to tackling climate change,” Financial Times, at https://www.ft.com/content/3bcbcb60-037f-11e9-99df-6183d3002ee1.
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Robinson, R.M. (2023). The “Most Polluted River”: The Grand Calumet. In: Environmental Advocacy and Local Restorations. Environmental Politics and Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28439-7_6
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