Roxana Marsh restoration continues along Grand Cal

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Updated: February 21, 2012 8:30AM

EAST CHICAGO — The work to excavate and restore the Roxana Marsh on the Grand Calumet River is nearing completion, but workers will continue to monitor new plantings for the next few years.

A Thursday afternoon open house at the Knights of Columbus Hall in East Chicago detailed the various stages of restoration — from dredging to plantings.

The 19-acre marsh is just north of the South Shore Line train tracks — between Columbia and Indianapolis boulevards — in East Chicago and Hammond. The Roxana Marsh project is part of a continuing effort to remove the river from the EPA’s list of most-polluted parts of the Great Lakes ecosystem. The sediments in the river and marsh are contaminated with metals, PCBs and other pollutants.

The EPA, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are partners on the project. The cities of East Chicago and Hammond as well as the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers have also been active in the project.

The Great Lakes Legacy Act covered about 65 percent of the cost of the $50 million project, with the remainder covered by state funds.

Dredging of the Grand Calumet started in June 2011, and workers removed 252,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment. After water was squeezed out of the sediments, the material was transported to landfills in Three Rivers, Mich., Monticello, Ind., and Wyatt, Ind.

The second phase will start in February when EPA contractors cap the bottom of the dredged area of the river with clay and sand mix to create a barrier over any remaining contaminants.

Roxana Marsh project manager Diana Nally said the cap work should continue until June and, during the late spring and early summer, workers will start flower, shrub and tree plantings. Nally said the contractors will be responsible for maintaining the plantings for a year. Beyond that, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, which owns the marsh, will monitor the marsh’s progress and deal with invasive species, such as phragmite plants, which choked out native plants that used to provide food and shelter to migratory birds.