Porter County has gotten more than a million dollars to clean up waterways contaminated by an industrial chemical. County Engineer Michael Novotney says it's part of the settlement of a class action lawsuit against Monsanto for its alleged role in manufacturing and distributing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
"It accumulates readily in the environment, particularly in fish tissue and aquatic organisms, so there's significant contamination across the U.S. in our water bodies," Novotney told the county commissioners last week.
He said the settlement money can be used for the restoration and remediation of PCB-contaminated waterways within the county. Crooked Creek, Lake Michigan and the east branch of the Little Calumet River are among those affected.
He said he'd work with the county's storm water board to determine exactly how the money gets used. "There are impaired water bodies outside of our service area, Storm Water's service area — like conservancy districts, town of Chesterton, for example — that we may work together or allow use of some of that funding to those organizations," Novotney added.
He said the settlement money won't cover all the remediation that needs to be done, but it will make a positive impact.
