A resident of the city’s West Calumet Housing Project is suing Mayor Anthony Copeland and the City of East Chicago over exposure to toxic chemicals found in and around her home.
Lashawnda Walker contends she and her four children have been exposed to “extremely high levels of lead and arsenic,” according to the lawsuit. Also named in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Hammond this week, are BP, DuPont, and Atlantic Richfield Co.
Walker, who is seeking unspecified monetary damages, claims she and her children “have suffered past, present and future personal injuries, including (but not necessarily limited to): various health problems, weight loss, shortened life expectancy, miscarriage, physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, medical expenses, medical monitoring expenses, wage loss, brain and developmental injuries, cognitive deficits, lost earning capacity, aggravation and exacerbation of pre-existing conditions and contract damages.”
East Chicago Corporation Counsel Carla Morgan said she was not aware of the lawsuit, but that the city was concerned right now with moving people out of West Calumet project.
“We’ll take the litigation as it comes,” she said, adding the city has received tort claim on behalf of 12 residents.
In addition, the lawsuit states the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Environmental Protection Agency failed to provide notice to Walker or the general public regarding the agreement or the underlying circumstances that detrimentally affected the property, health and lives of the plaintiffs.
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Walker alleges the city and Copeland, acting in his role as mayor, failed to notify her of the contamination and deliberately concealed such facts, including the EPA’s proposed a cleanup in July 2012 of the residential area that includes the West Calumet Housing Complex. The suit claims residents were never told about the extremely high levels of lead and arsenic until July 2016.
Efforts to reach Walker were unsuccessful Tuesday. Her attorney, Daniel Zamudio, said he was unable to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon.
During a public hearing in August, East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland said the city received notification of the high lead levels at the complex earlier in the summer. Copeland wrote HUD asking that the agency expedite issuing relocation vouchers to move residents out of the complex.
“Now that we know the levels of lead in the ground in the West Calumet Housing Complex, we feel it is in your best interests to temporarily relocate your household to safer conditions,” Copeland wrote in a letter to the complex’s residents. “Even though this may be of great inconvenience to you, it’s necessary to protect you and your children from possible harm.”
As lead levels in the residents’ homes have shown to be at least 10 times higher than the acceptable level, Copeland recently ordered the residents to evacuate the property. The U.S. Agency of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agreed to emergency assistance that will enable residents to move.
During testing, the EPA found some parcels where the lead levels were above 5,000 parts per million, the Post-Tribune reported in July, and the standard level is 400 parts per million.
At the time, the EPA started covering spots of exposed contaminated soil and put up signs advising residents to stay off the grass and take steps to minimize bringing any contaminated material into their homes.
EPA teams at the West Calumet Housing Complex are now in the process of cleaning individual residential units. The teams are washing walls, floors, furniture and some of the residents’ belongings, according to the EPA, and cleaning ventilation and air conditioning systems.
The U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana, in 2014, approved a consent decree between the EPA, Department of Justice, state of Indiana, the Atlantic Richfield Co. and E.I. du Pont De Nemours regarding the cleanup of the U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery site. The agreement covered only zones 1 and 3 of the site.
Zone 1, which includes the West Calumet Housing Complex and Carrie Gosch Elementary, runs from McCook Avenue to the Indiana Harbor Canal, with 151st Street on the south and 148th Street on the north. Zone 3 includes the land between East Huish Drive and Parrish Avenue, with Chicago Avenue on the north and 149th Place to the south.
Based on the agreement, the two companies would cover roughly $26 million in cleanup costs, according to the EPA.
The EPA may consider revising the cleanup plan included in that agreement, according to sources close to the situation in East Chicago.
Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.