Indiana American Water has issued the following statement regarding a chemical spill Tuesday morning into Burns Ditch at the U.S. Steel facility in Portage, Indiana:
“Due to a chemical spill on Tuesday morning, August 20, 2019 into Burns Ditch at a U.S. Steel facility in Portage, Ind., Indiana American Water has shut down its Ogden Dunes treatment facility as a precautionary measure after being notified by representatives of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) of the spill earlier today. Indiana American Water uses water from two Lake Michigan intakes as source water in northwest Indiana, including the facility at Ogden Dunes and the larger Borman Park water treatment plant located in Gary, Ind. 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 or on our finished water quality, the Ogden Dunes facility 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. The company had already reduced flow through the Ogden Dunes facility after ArcelorMittal exceeded its permitted discharge of cyanide and ammonia into Little Calumet River last week, resulting in a fish kill downstream from their outfall. The Borman Park water treatment facility, located in Gary, Ind., remains in service and is able to provide adequate treatment capacity to meet customer needs for the company’s customers in northwest Indiana.”