Environmental groups are urging northwest Indiana residents to comment on a proposed federal settlement over a U.S. Steel plant's discharging of a potentially carcinogenic chemical that entered a Lake Michigan tributary.
The public comment period on the proposed settlement ends June 6. Save the Dunes and the Ogden Dunes Environmental Advisory Board will host a public meeting Wednesday about the settlement.
That settlement calls for U.S. Steel to pay nearly $900,000 in fines and penalties for spills at its Midwest Plant in Portage, daily tests for hexavalent chromium, create a preventative maintenance program and upgrade pollution monitoring.
One spill in April 2017 resulted in almost 300 pounds of hexavalent chromium dumped into the Burns Waterway, which feeds into Lake Michigan.