EPA Begins Cleanup of Slag Processing and Superfund Site

The U.S. EPA, Region 5 announced that cleanup of the slag processing area of the Recovery Act-funded Continental Steel Superfund site in Kokomo, Ind., is under way, with a first phase nearly complete. The project is being managed in consultation with Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

This past April, EPA received $5.9 million in funding via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to complete needed cleanup at two portions of the 183-acre Superfund site:  the former Slag Processing Area and Contaminated Groundwater.

Prior to the new ARRA funding, EPA had spent more than $66 million on cleanup activities at the site, while the IDEM has spent about $6 million. Significant remediation work prior to the current ARRA work included  teardown of the old Main Plant buildings and excavation and disposal of heavily contaminated soil and waste piles in that area, and dredging and disposal of contaminated sediment from the Kokomo and Wildcat creeks and Markland Avenue quarry.

Continental Steel operated on the site from about 1914 to 1986, when it filed for bankruptcy. The site was added to EPA's Superfund National Priorities List in 1989. 

The slag processing cleanup started in early September. The first phase, now about 95 percent complete, entails moving about 80,000 tons of lead- and arsenic-contaminated steel waste to the Acid Lagoon Area for use as fill.