Plan for underwater lakeside dump delayed over concerns

A plan to expand a lakeside dump on the Southeast Side that’s filled with contaminated dredged material has been paused after Illinois environmental officials raised water-pollution concerns about the project.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has withdrawn an application with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency after state officials raised multiple concerns last year about possible contamination of Lake Michigan from the stored toxic dredged material scooped from the Calumet River.

Among the concerns are issues related to safeguards that prevent lake contamination with mercury and the long-banned industrial chemicals polychlorinated biphenyls, commonly known as PCBs.

The Corps said in a statement that it is committed to the site and completing expansion of a “confined disposal facility” that’s been filling up with the river sediment, much of it containing metals and chemicals, since the early 1980s.

“We have a congressionally authorized and appropriated project and are continuing to work through the permitting process,” the Corps said in a statement to the Sun-Times. A new application will be submitted “when we are ready to provide a comprehensive response.”

Decades ago, the Corps said that the site was only temporary and that the land would be converted into park space, possibly by the 1990s.

That never happened.

The Corps removes river sediment so that commercial boats can navigate the Calumet River and Calumet Harbor in and out of Lake Michigan. Enabling commerce along waterways is one of the responsibilities of the Army Corps.

The dredged-material dump, which is underwater in a pond, is close to the Calumet Park Beach at East 99th Street. Placing material in a pond is designed to filter and then discharge clean water back into the river while the dredged material remains contained.

Last March, Friends of the Parks and Alliance of the Southeast sued the Corps to stop the proposed expansion in hopes an alternative site would be found. Corps officials have said they already concluded that the Southeast Side was the best option. No other site is being considered.

“Significant concerns were raised, and they could be addressed by finding another site,” said Amalia NietoGomez, executive director of the Alliance of the Southeast. “We don’t want the expansion. Period.”

NietoGomez said the Corps should consider that the surrounding area is an environmental justice community, which means it already has historical pollution issues. In a letter to the Corps last year, Illinois environmental officials noted “extensive public interest, including environmental justice concerns,” as they laid out their concerns.

The larger Southeast Side was once home to steel mills that occupied large swaths of land and have largely not been redeveloped because environmental cleanups are costly. The Corps disposal site sits on land once used as a dumping ground for steel mills. The land is now owned by the Chicago Park District.

“Chicago’s stunning lakefront is for people and parks — not toxic waste dumps,” said Environmental Law and Policy Center Executive Director Howard Learner, whose organization represents Friends of the Parks and NietoGomez’s group.