Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
Bankruptcy means Dana Corp. is unable to assume cleanup responsibility for pollution the company caused in Angola. The city doesn’t have the option of ignoring the contamination that threatens its drinking water, so Angola residents will likely need to bear the bulk of the burden for the costly cleanup.
On Wednesday, Steuben County and city officials met with representatives of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and Indiana Finance Authority in Indianapolis to talk about the options to pay for the needed cleanup. When Dana left the site at 203 Weatherhead St. in Angola, the company also left behind trichloroethene pollution. The chlorinated solvent is now contaminating ground wells that provide Angola residents with drinking water. IDEM estimates the cost for cleaning up the pollution is at least $5.5 million.
Previously the city, county and Univertical Corp., a company that had nothing to do with causing the pollution but is now operating at the site, each agreed to contribute $1 million toward the cleanup. That leaves the city short $2.5 million.
At the meeting, state officials told Angola Mayor Dick Hickman not to expect the state to pay the difference, though it will chip in a small amount: Money from the 300,000 Dana shares the state expects to receive as part of the bankruptcy settlement will go toward the cleanup. And Angola can get a 20-year no-interest loan from the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
“To say the least, what happened was disappointing,” Hickman said. “They felt the citizens of this community should help pay for their clean drinking water. We feel $1 million is the community’s contribution.”
State environmental management officials suggested Angola look at raising water or sewer rates to repay the loan from the state. Hickman said the city is still working on numbers to share with the Angola City Council. But he said IDEM officials estimate it will mean an increase of $3 to $5 each month for most residents.
The issue is becoming more critical because Dana will soon stop running a pump system that is keeping more contamination from reaching the city’s water supply. Univertical will likely leave Indiana if forced to pay the entire cost to clean the site.
City officials will continue to look at other options, Hickman said. “But we have to get something done now. We can limp along like we are now, but it seems it’s not fair to keep passing this problem along from generation to generation. I want to clean it up now. If we don’t do anything, that company goes away, those jobs go away, we still have the problem with our water, and that building sits there and rots in the middle of our city until we do something.”
The declining economy makes any rate increase a hardship for residents. But contaminated water is far more onerous.
