In 1978, the United States and Canada signed a broad Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes. As part of the agreement, they identified 43 Areas of Concern that needed remediation and restoration, including the Grand Calumet River and Indiana Harbor Ship Canal. Former IDEM Commissioner Kathy Prosser appointed a group of stakeholders, the Citizen’s Advisory for the Remediation of the Environment (CARE) Committee, to assist IDEM in developing a plan for removing the 14 Beneficial Use Impairments from the Area of Concern (AOC) in Indiana.
That initial Remedial Action Plan for the Grand Calumet River Area of Concern has evolved through the years as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has required the development of different stages.
Current And Historical Remedial Action Plans
Stage 1
The Stage 1 Remedial Action Plan [PDF], drafted in 1991, recounted the history of the environmental problems affecting the area; detailed the land, water, and air quality issues affecting the region relative to the 14 beneficial use impairments; listed the existing toxics; and prioritized them by their impacts on human health and the environment.
Stage 2
The Stage 2 Remedial Action Plan (RAP), drafted in 1997, built upon the work conducted for the Stage 1 RAP. For the first time, the RAP included a complete list of existing and proposed remedial and regulatory measures intended to restore the Area of Concern. The authors took an ecosystem approach when developing the plan, seeking to bring a cohesive framework to these individual actions. The resulting matrix of activities would be evaluated later in the Stage 2.5 addendum.
- Front Matter [PDF]
- Chapter 1: The Remedial Action Plan Process And Stage II Goals [PDF]
- Chapter 2: Environmental Conditions [PDF]
- Chapter 3: Sources Of Environmental Stress [PDF]
- Chapter 4: Participation In The Remedial Action Plan Process [PDF]
- Chapter 5: Actions To Attain Goals [PDF]
- Chapter 6: Information Gaps [PDF]
- Chapter 7: Surveillance And Monitoring Program [PDF]
- Chapter 8: Multi-media Data Coordination Responsibilities [PDF]
- End Matter [PDF]
Stage 2.5
IDEM and the CARE Committee developed the addendum to Stage 2, Stage 2 addendum, Remedial Action Plan 2.5 [PDF] in 1998. It expanded on the matrix of remedial and regulatory measures originally listed in the Stage 2 RAP by evaluating whether they would restore beneficial uses to an extent to remove the Grand Calumet River and Indiana Harbor Ship Canal from the list of Great Lakes AOCs.
The current Update to the Stage 2.5 RAP, developed in 2012, outlines the work required to restore each beneficial use (called removing the beneficial use impairment) and how that can be accomplished.