Source: http://www.nwitimes.com, December 14, 2015
By: Keith Benman

Gary/Chicago International Airport has entered into a “milestone” agreement with state regulators to contain decades-old contamination and keep it from migrating into the Grand Calumet River.

As part of the agreement, the airport has agreed to extend a concrete culvert that loops around the northwest end of the main runway and to monitor water draining off airport property for years to come, according to Airport Director Dan Vicari.

The airport authority has been engaged in negotiations on the matter for years with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The airport was looking for a way to meet regulators’ concerns while not busting the budget for its $174 million runway expansion project.

“We appreciate reaching this milestone,” said Airport Authority Chairman Stephen Mays at Monday’s authority meeting at the airport administration building. “It is a major step forward.”

The agreement will basically release the airport from the environmental liabilities it covers, as long as the airport abides by its monitoring and other requirements, said lawyer Frank Deveau, who negotiated much of the deal.

Much of the concern focuses on the area where the runway was recently lengthened by 1,900 feet, which was once occupied in succession by an asphalt plant, an oil refinery and a chemical treatment and recycling plant. There have been previous cleanups of cyanide, PCBs and various oils at the site, but there is still contamination at both airport and off-airport properties.

The agreement with IDEM will also clear the way for the airport to go after some of the companies responsible for the pollution, Deveau said. It is possible the airport could recoup at least some of the millions of dollars it spent on cleaning up contamination during the expansion project.

“It sets us up in good position to pursue those responsible for the contamination,” Deveau told the authority board.

Such mitigation is required by federal regulations enforced mainly by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Monday’s action included adding $10,500 to a contract for another acre of affected wetlands which must be offset by a restoration program. In all, the restoration projects could cost the airport between $1.5 million and $2 million, according to the airport’s most recent estimates.