All beaches at the Indiana Dunes National Park were closed immediately to swimming as a precaution due to a spill of a “rusty colored liquid” from U.S. Steel Midwest Plant into Burns Waterway Sunday evening, near the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk, spokesman Bruce Rowe said Monday.
“An investigation is underway to determine the nature and extent of the discharge,” he said.
The spill was likely iron, a U.S. Steel spokeswoman said late Monday.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management is the lead agency investigating, Rowe said. National Park Service personnel are assisting.
“IDEM staff on site have not observed any dead fish or other wildlife. We hope to have sampling results early this afternoon,” agency spokesman Barry Sneed said Monday.
Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes said Monday afternoon on Twitter the steelmaker told her office the spill was likely iron particles.
Hours later, U.S. Steel spokeswoman Amanda Malkowski confirmed this.
“Analysis of the water from the outfall taken during the time of the incident showed elevated concentrations of iron causing the discoloration,” she said. “There are no indications of permit level exceedances for hexavalent and total chromium, as those sampling results came in well below permit limits.”
U.S. Steel Midwest Plant shut down operations as a precaution after an “upset condition” with the finishing line wastewater treatment plant, Malkowski said earlier.
“Early indications show higher than normal suspended solids in the water, and we are conducting additional sampling and an investigation to determine the cause,” she said. “U.S. Steel made all appropriate notifications to regulatory agencies and some officials have been on-site, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the U.S. Coast Guard, and Porter County.”
Indiana American Water shut down its Ogden Dunes water treatment plant Sunday night, spokesman Joe Loughmiller said. The main Gary treatment plant has the capacity to provide water for its Northwest Indiana customers.
“Indiana American Water performs continuous real-time monitoring at our Ogden Dunes treatment facility, and although we have seen no impact on the raw water parameters we are monitoring for at this location, the treatment plant will remain offline until such time as additional data and water testing results confirm there is no threat to the company’s source water at this location,” he said.
Portage Mayor Sue Lynch said Monday she was waiting to see what test results showed. The National Park Service and IDEM had boats out Monday afternoon taking water samples, she said.
Someone texted her a picture around 5:40 p.m. Sunday asking what was happening in Burns Waterway. She went over there within 15 minutes.
“It’s like, ‘yikes’,” she said. “I can see that orange plume coming from the outfall.”
By the time she left about an hour later, it was heading out to the mouth. It’s dissipated somewhat Monday, she said.
Porter County Hazmat has also been called, according to the police department.
The apparent spill at the U.S. Steel Midwest plant comes weeks after a federal judge approved a revised settlement with the company, more than four years after the Portage plant discharged wastewater containing a potentially carcinogenic chemical into the Burns Waterway.
U.S. Steel agreed to pay a $601,242 civil penalty and more than $625,000 to reimburse various agencies for costs associated with their response in April 2017 after the plant spilled 300 pounds of hexavalent chromium — or 584 times the daily maximum limit allowed under state permitting laws.
The Associated Press contributed.