The USS Lead Superfund site covers the former USS Lead smelting and refining facility and surrounding residential, commercial, and municipal areas in East Chicago, Indiana. EPA added it to the National Priorities List (NPL) in 2009. The site is divided into two operable units (OUs). OU1 covers 322 acres of residential neighborhoods. OU2 covers the former industrial facility and groundwater beneath the site and nearby neighborhoods.
Lead and arsenic are the main contaminants. They are found primarily in soil, but groundwater, sediment, and plant and animal tissue have also been sampled. All residents connect to East Chicago's municipal water system, which draws from Lake Michigan. Groundwater is not used for drinking locally, and EPA found no homes with site-related groundwater exposure risk.
OU1 is split into three cleanup zones. Zone 1 includes the former West Calumet Housing Complex and Carrie Gosch Elementary School. A contractor called Industrial Development Advantage (IDA) began active soil cleanup there in 2023. By July 2024, IDA had removed over 84,000 tons of contaminated soil and brought in nearly 34,000 tons of clean fill, finishing about 85% of the work. Cleanup is expected to shift toward preparing the area for future industrial redevelopment. Zones 2 and 3 are fully cleaned up. All 510 properties in Zone 2 and all 297 properties in Zone 3 that needed cleanup have been completed and restored. In September 2020, EPA removed those 671 properties from the NPL after confirming the work met EPA standards. Interior dust sampling and cleaning in both zones is also done.
For OU2, parties potentially responsible for contamination have been installing monitoring wells and sampling groundwater, soil, sediment, and plant and animal tissue since late 2018. EPA also collected dust and sump water samples from a subset of Zone 3 homes due to concerns about basement seepage but found no on-site exposure risk from groundwater. EPA completed its first five-year review in August 2021 to confirm the cleanup continues to protect human health and the environment. Community members can follow site progress through EPA updates and the five-year review process, which evaluates whether the remedy remains protective over time.
