East Chicago, Indiana - August 24, 2016
Sherry Hunter, an activist and life-long resident of the West Calumet area of East Chicago, Indiana, has helped organized the community after residents in Zone 1, pictured at left, received a notice in July that they will have to relocate because the soil around their homes is "highly contaminated with lead and arsenic." Hunter, who lives a few blows away in Zone 2, said, "Our lives matter our here in Calumet."
The West Calumet Housing Complex, which is currently home to about 1,200 people, is located on a 79-acre Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site where a USS Lead facility was located in East Chicago, Indiana. Up until 1985, a lead refinery, a copper smelter and a secondary lead smelter were also in the area. The houses were built between the late 1960s and early 1970s.
CREDIT: Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times 30194607A
