Gary residents will soon get clarity on potential health risks from the city’s Chase Street well after officials announced new testing, a month after federal scientists reported arsenic levels above safety limits.
The Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission announced Wednesday it will launch new testing the week of Sept. 22, following community pressure for answers about the safety of the free-flowing water source that residents have relied on for generations.
A U.S. Geological Survey review of groundwater in Northwest Indiana previously found arsenic levels at the Chase Street well that exceeded federal safety limits. The August presentation revealed the well — long praised by residents and even rumored to have medicinal benefits — tested above the maximum contaminant level of 10 micrograms per liter, reaching 12 micrograms in 2022 and higher in 2023.
The presentation cited results from 2022 and 2023, the most recent testing completed to date. Harvie Pollard, a USGS hydrologist who presented the findings, said the lag in the nearly 3-year-old results was due to staffing shortages, cost, and the time it takes to test for the more than 70 chemicals.
The Environmental Protection Agency classifies inorganic arsenic, which is usually found in contaminated water, as a “human carcinogen.” Exposure has been linked to lung, bladder, kidney, skin, and liver cancers, as well as skin damage, circulatory problems, and cardiovascular disease.
Shortly after Capital B Gary first reported the findings, residents took to the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission, the presiding authority over the well, to seek more answers and demand further testing.
“We weren’t supposed to test for it, because we weren’t asked to test for it, “ Executive Director Dan Repay told Capital B Gary. “We just want to know for our own sake.”
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management, which oversees the management of the well, only requires annual testing of nitrates and monthly testing for coliform, and does not include other elemental testing.
Michael Novotney, a Northwest Indiana-based environmental engineer for Wessler Engineering, will be leading the testing and will be using Merrillville-based Microbac Laboratories to analyze the samples.
According to Novotney, sampling is slated to start early the week of Sept. 22, and is expected to have a seven-to-10-day turnaround time for results.
“It’s for a suite of 50 common service water quality parameters, including 23 different metals. Arsenic, being one of those,” Novotney told Capital B Gary. Until the study is completed, Repay said there will be no signage at the spring.
While arsenic is a naturally occurring element in water and soil, levels of arsenic tend to be higher in prevalence in ground drinking water, according to the American Cancer Society. Iron and manganese levels at the Chase Street well were also above EPA standards, Pollard said, which is likely the reason for the ring of rust left around the spout of the well, and may explain the water’s metallic taste. The testing found no traces of PFAS, or forever chemicals, in the water samples.
Dorreen Carey, president of Gary Advocates for Responsible Development, spoke on behalf of the environmental advocacy organization to recommend filtration and more cautionary signage. As a popular, rare, free drinking water source in the city, she added that she hopes that it doesn’t have to be cut off.
“A lot of people use this well,” she said. “I know a lot of people that don’t want to see it shut down.”
Gary Lee, community activist and environmental advocate, said more action is needed to let people know about the ongoing testing.
“People need to know what’s going on,” Lee said, adding that he would like to see more community engagement to share information by the commission.
Generations of Gary residents have visited the well over decades, filling up water bottles and milk gallon jugs of the mineral-rich water. For many residents in the city, it is their only source of free drinking water.
Since the August presentation, the Little Calumet River Basin website has been updated to include language that there are “inherent risks” with drinking untreated groundwater from the Spring Park. It also added a link to a drinking water quality database, which allows users to search for water systems like the Chase Street well for violations of different contaminants.
“The water from Spring Park is untreated groundwater from an aquifer located below the area. Water quality may vary from day to day due to a variety of natural and other factors. While the water is tested monthly for coliform and yearly for nitrates, there are inherent risks with drinking untreated water,” the website states.