EPA: US Steel leaks chemical into Lake Michigan tributary
PORTAGE, Ind. — A spill at a U.S. Steel plant in northern Indiana that sent wastewater containing a potentially carcinogenic chemical into a Lake Michigan tributary was apparently caused by a pipe failure but testing has found none of that toxic substance in the lake, the company and federal officials said Wednesday.
Tuesday’s spill of an unknown amount of wastewater led to the closure of three beach areas at the scenic Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and prompted a local water utility to stop drawing water from the lake out of “an abundance of caution,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.
U.S. Steel said a preliminary investigation shows an expansion joint failed Tuesday in a pipe at its Portage, Indiana, facility, allowing wastewater from an electroplating treatment process that contains hexavalent chromium to flow into the wrong wastewater treatment plant at the complex.
That wastewater eventually flowed into the Burns Waterway, a lake tributary, at a point about 100 yards from Lake Michigan, said the EPA, which is overseeing the response to the spill.