EPA urged to expand testing around Superfund site in Indiana

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - South Bend residents who live near a former hazardous waste dump want federal officials to expand their planned soil-testing around homes in the northern Indiana city.

Several audience members who attended the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Wednesday meeting about its soil-testing plans urged the agency to also test their yards for contaminants.

The South Bend Tribune reports EPA remedial project manager Jenny Davison said the EPA might consider enlarging the testing area if high contamination levels are found around the first properties tested.

Environmental officials have known since 1984 that several industrial companies dumped hazardous wastes for decades at a site that later became South Bend's LaSalle Park.

That park has been a Superfund site since 2013. Previous testing has detected elevated arsenic levels in soils around nearby homes.

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Information from: South Bend Tribune, http://www.southbendtribune.com