State Rep. Earl Harris Jr.’s bill to help East Chicago unanimously passes out of committee

INDIANAPOLIS – Members of the Indiana House Environmental Affairs Committee today unanimously passed legislation authored by State Representative Earl Harris Jr. (D-East Chicago) that seeks to help East Chicago respond to its ongoing lead crisis.

House Bill 1344 proposes the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) assist the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with sampling, excavation, and removal of contaminated soil and restoration work in the West Calumet area.

This legislation also pushes the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to help residents effected by this crisis to relocate to new homes.

“This is not an issue that will take a week or a month, it will be a long-term and ongoing process,” Harris said. “So it is hopeful to see that so many people are engaged in this bill and made the trip down here to the Statehouse to show the committee and everyone how important this issue is.”

This legislation also proposes that IDEM or the State Department of Health (ISDH) conduct annual testing for the presence of lead and arsenic in the soil and water in East Chicago.

Rev. Cheryl Rivera, who is the executive director and lead organizer of the Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations and is a leader of the community strategy group that is working on the lead and arsenic crisis in East Chicago, testified in favor of the bill today.

“This bill is important because it provides us an opportunity to have our water and soil tested at the Superfund site and beyond,” Rev. Rivera stated. “Last week the EPA came out and said that everybody in East Chicago needs to have a filter in their home because 90 percent of households have contaminated drinking water. We believe clean public water is a health right and a civil right.”

House Bill 1344 also requires the state to collect from the EPA the reasonable costs incurred by state agencies in providing the assistance.

Committee members heard from a few of the more than 1,000 people who have been affected by this crisis.

Akeeshea Daniels said, “I am a resident of 40 years in the East Chicago area and am facing the problem of being forced to relocate. I am here to support this bill because I hope it can provide other residents along with myself and the children some compensation and help, since we are being forced out of the city.”

Sara Jimenez, another resident of East Chicago added, “Hopefully we can live there in a safe environment. If that’s not the case, hopefully they are not just going to use this as a Band-Aid to fix the problem, meaning they will clean up some areas and not others. That is when we really need to talk about relocation.

“I have to tell you we were going to sell our house, my husband and I, just last year. Sadly, we got a notification from the EPA stating that our land was contaminated with arsenic and lead. We had a buyer and were ready to move, but in good consciousness we could not sell our home to this family. We did not want their children around the high lead and arsenic levels. There is more that goes into this story because the reason we were moving was doctors’ orders. I am suffering from kidney disease and will be getting a kidney transplant soon,” Jimenez added.