PROJECT START DATE MOVED UP TO FALL 2021
BY: MORGAN SALTSGIVER
The City of Hammond, Indiana is accelerating the timeline of a lead-contaminated soil removal project in a residential neighborhood this year. The cleanup project in the Robertsdale neighborhood was originally forecasted to start sometime in the next 7 to 10 years; however, with the safety of their residents in mind, Hammond leaders pushed to fast-track the timeline to start this Fall. The City will pay for the soil remediation along with new topsoil, grass, and landscaping for each impacted property.
In 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that several properties in the Robertsdale section contained levels of lead in the soil as a result of a nearby metals processor that operated decades ago. In response, the EPA cleaned up a few properties in the area containing high levels of lead but determined that federal funding wasn’t available to clean up the remaining properties. The City and EnviroForensics will manage the removal and disposal of the lead-contaminated soil at 12 different properties in the final quarter of 2021 and will continue to clean up the remaining properties in the neighborhood through the next two to three years using City funds.
The Mayor’s office and the Hammond Department of Environmental Management have given notice of the upcoming cleanup to the residents of the Robertsdale area. When the remediation is completed, Hammond will provide a certificate to each property owner to show future interested buyers that their property meets environmental standards.
Learn more about EnviroForensics’ Environmental Investigation & Remediation Services.
Morgan Saltsgiver is a Licensed Professional Geologist (LPG) with eighteen years of experience in the environmental industry specializing in providing Agribusiness, Brownfields development, and traditional environmental consulting services to her clients. Her educational background in geology provides a strong basis for geological and hydrogeological interpretations of contaminant migration through subsurface media and the development of conceptual site models used to develop the path forward towards closure for each project site. She assists her clients with finding and using alternative funding sources for their environmental issues, including historical insurance policies, federal and local Brownfields grants, and state trust funds.
