The Bloomington Indiana Field Office (BFO) began working to bring a natural resource damage case for the Grand Calumet River in 1989. In 1996, USFWS joined with our Co-trustees, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and officially initiated a natural resource damage assesssment. Settlement negotiations began in 1997 with nine Potentially Responsible Parties. They are: Atlantic Richfield Company (and ARCO Environmental Remediation, L.L.C.); BP Products North America Inc.; E.I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company; Exxon Mobile Corporation; GATX Corporation; Georgia-Pacific Corporation; ISPAT-Inland Inc.; United States Steel Corporation; and, LTV Steel Corporation. In 2001, LTV Steel filed for bankruptcy and more than $ 4 million was paid to the Trustees through the bankruptcy proceedings.

For more information on this case, please visit our website at: http://midwest.fws.gov/GrandCalumetRiver/

Indiana Governor Joe Kernan, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett and Deputy Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice John Cruden made the announcement at a press event held in Marquette Park, Gary, Ind., overlooking the former headwaters of the Grand Calumet River. Prior to the event, the Assistant Secretary and the Deputy Attorney General toured several NRD restoration sites that resulted from previous NRDA settlements pertaining to the Grand Calumet River. Representatives from Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (NPS) and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management assisted BFO in accomplishing these field visits.

This NRDA settlement grants protection to an additional 233 acres of globally rare dune and swale habitats and some additional GCR riparian / wetland habitats that are valuable for migratory birds. Additional habitat restoration will continue in this area as the trustees work to develop an appropriate sediment management plan to remove or contain approximately 2.5 million cubic yards of contaminated sediments from the river. The contamination associated with these sediments continue to harm all aspects of biota from fish and frogs to migratory birds. We hope that someday this river will fulfill its original functions to support a healthy ecosystem. This agreement meets the statutory requirements to restore, replace, rehabilitate, and/or acquire the equivalent of the lost natural resources.