EPA Seeks Feedback on Cleanup at NIPSCO’s Bailly Plant
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be accepting comments through August 19 on a proposed cleanup plan for part of NIPSCO’s shuttered Bailly generating station.
Our partners at The Times of Northwest Indiana report NIPSCO buried ash created from burning coal at the site in the 1960s and 1970s.
The EPA said the waste is about 25 feet underground and is affecting nearby Indiana Dunes National Park.
“The proposed cleanup involves excavation and off-site disposal of contaminated soils at the source area,” EPA documents state. “In addition, contaminated soil present beneath the water table will be solidified to prevent remaining contaminants from migrating to the groundwater or surface water.”
The publication reports NIPSCO and EPA in 2005 entered into an administrative order on consent requiring the utility to investigate and clean up contamination at the Bailly property under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The order also established EPA oversight of the remedial process.
The Bailly facility still houses equipment to ensure transmission of continuous voltage and a gas-fired “peaking unit” used during high-demand periods, EPA said.