IDEM finds more plastic pellets near PolyJohn site

Published in the Times of Northwest Indiana

April 3, 2022

HAMMOND — "Chicka-dee-dee-dee," Carolyn Marsh sang to the black-capped chickadees flitting through the bare trees as she made her way through the wetlands connected to George Lake before abruptly stopping at a muddy ditch.

Kneeling before a stormwater discharge site she saw a scene that was all too familiar — countless multi-colored plastic pellets floating in the water.

The stormwater line runs from the nearby PolyJohn Enterprise plant. In February of 2021, PolyJohn received a notice of violation from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management for discharging into surface waters and for failing to have a stormwater pollution plan.

Marsh, a Whiting resident, is among a group of locals who document and discuss environmental concerns in the area.

“We need to make sure that IDEM and the city do their due diligence and get this wetland cleaned up,” Marsh said. “Everybody should care about saving their backyard park."

PolyJohn has been manufacturing portable toilets and sinks in a facility just a few feet from the north basin of George Lake for almost 40 years. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management completed an initial inspection of the PolyJohn site in July of 2020, after a resident reported finding thousands of plastic particles in the wetlands around George Lake.

The IDEM report explained that PolyJohn's stormwater lines extend to ditches that lead to George Lake. The IDEM inspector observed numerous plastic pellets in both ditches.

After the July 2020 inspection, IDEM completed a follow-up investigation and found that PolyJohn had ramped up cleaning operations, but that some plastics were still present. On Nov. 8, 2021, IDEM approved an agreed order requiring PolyJohn submit a compliance plan identifying clean-up efforts and preventative measures, as well as a storm-water pollution prevention plan. PolyJohn also had to pay IDEM $11,350 as part of the agreed order, which allows a settlement of violations without the alleged violator admitting guilt.

Sam Cooper, chief operations officer with PolyJohn, said the final compliance plan will likely be released by IDEM in the next few weeks. However, another resident complaint prompted an inspection of the site on March 25, 2022 — IDEM found plastic pellets and "a fine gray plastic powder."

IDEM issued a noncompliance letter on March 31, 2022. Cooper said PolyJohn is aware of the contamination and "is actively investigating the source of the plastic." The gray powder is called roto-powder, a material that is melted down to make portable sinks and porta-potty tanks. The powder is usually collected by the catch basins that block PolyJohn's drains, however heavy spring rain can cause those basins to overflow, Cooper said.

PolyJohn's products are made with polyethylene, a plastic that never fully breaks down in nature.

Julie Peller, a Valparaiso University chemistry professor, said the polyethylene pellets only weather, becoming smaller, harder to remove and easier for critters to consume. When the many animals that call the lake home eat the plastic, it occupies their gut, giving them a false sense of fullness and they ultimately become malnourished, Peller explained.

Once it has been exposed to an environment, polyethylene is very difficult to get rid of. Most efforts to remove microplastics from bodies water have been focused on oceans, Peller said, adding that "there is not much precedence for this."

Protecting George Lake

PolyJohn sits at 2500 Gaspar Ave. in Whiting, near the former former 36-acre Federated Metals smelting facility. While Federated Metals shut down operations in 1983, Northern Indiana Metals and Whiting Metals conducted smelting operations on a 17-acre parcel of the land until 2020.

After decades of Stackhouse emissions and improperly disposed waste, the EPA began to remediate the area in the 1990s. Around this time, the city of Hammond took ownership of George Lake, transforming it from "a slag dump to an emerald isle," Hammond Director of Environmental Management Ron Novak said.

"George Lake actually feeds into the channel that is along Calumet Avenue down to the ship canal, so it is really part of the Lake Michigan basin," Novak said. "A significant amount of time and funds have been spent to restore that area."

The city is currently waiting for IDEM to release the compliance plan. If the plan is not satisfactory the city will "assess its options as the land owner," Novak said.

“This (the violation observed on March 25) is sort of like a bump in the road in getting to the final clean-up, which we hope to get to soon," Novak said.

Over the past several months PolyJohn has hired a full-time staff person responsible for monitoring contamination, started using a large vacuum and a street sweeper to collect the plastic, and bought silos to store the roto-powder.

"We want to prevent this from ever happening again," Cooper said. “We live here and work here too, and we want to make sure we are being good neighbors."

George Lake provides key habitat for migrating birds, wildlife and native plants, Novak said. Anglers, birders, hikers and bikers frequent the area.

Shortly after Marsh moved to Whiting in 1987, the wooded portion of George Lake became a regular part of her birding route.

"That’s what got me, all of this was in walking distance of my house," Marsh said, gesturing to a group of deer carefully watching her from the edge of the George Lake tree line. "I was in heaven."

Over the years she found herself visiting George Lake less and less as surrounding development cut into bird habitat.

With her trusty binoculars slung over one shoulder, Marsh said she has seen George Lake bird populations decline before her eyes — she fears the PolyJohn contamination will harm wildlife even more.

"This area used to be loaded with birds," Marsh said. "How can we restore things when it is still being polluted?”