2000
Indiana Fish
Consumption
Advisory
Air Monitoring
Eddy Pump
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Long Term Air Monitoring Program
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Background of Air Monitoring Program
The East Chicago Waterway Management District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District (Corps), have entered into a project cooperation agreement to dredge approximately four million cubic yards of contaminated sediment from the Indiana Harbor and Canal. The former Energy Cooperative, Inc. (ECI) site in East Chicago, Indiana,
is the site
proposed for the construction of a Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) for containing the contaminated sediments. It is anticipated that dredging and disposal activities at the CDF will begin in 2005. In advance of these dredging activities, it is desired to obtain current information on ambient air quality at the CDF property, as well as at the East Chicago Central High School. As such, in November 2001 the Corps
of Engineers has initiated a long term air monitoring program.
Purpose of Air Monitoring Program
The goal of the long term air monitoring program is to collect ambient air samples from four locations around the perimeter of the proposed CDF site and from one location near the East Chicago Central High School. The main objectives for this project are:
- To obtain quantitative data on the occurrence of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), and Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB), particulate matter, metals, dioxins, and furans, in air samples at the perimeter of the proposed CDF.
- To establish a long-term air quality database that will be used to determine background levels of the above constituents in the vicinity of the CDF site and the East Chicago Central High School.
- To respond to public inquiries about ambient air quality in the vicinity of the proposed CDF.
- To obtain meteorological data during air monitoring, so that an assessment of the impact of weather conditions on air pollution measurements can be made.
- To obtain data on seasonal variations in air pollutants in and around the CDF site.
- To obtain data to aid in determination of potential impact dredging and disposal activities may have on local air quality around the CDF site.