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Council member urges diligence on groundwater and soil safety near proposed Fire Station 6
Summary
Councilman Reinke urged the council and administration to prioritize testing and mitigation for groundwater and soil contamination near the planned Fire Station 6 site and elsewhere in the city, citing Superfund sites and recent contamination reports.
Councilman Reinke used other new business to press the Elkhart City Common Council and administration to prioritize long-term protection of the city’s water supply and soil, noting multiple contamination sites and the proximity of a planned Fire Station 6 to a known GSL contamination site.
"I'm hopeful that as a city, as a council, we can step into it. And it really has to do with the protection of our future water supply," Reinke said, asking that due diligence be done "on behalf of those firefighters that will be sleeping, working out of that area" and urging that Level 1 and Level 2 investigations be completed so the city cannot later be faulted for inaction.
Reinke said Indiana has about 10 Superfund sites and referred to the Conrail plume, noting residents previously found diesel in home water in 2001 and were emergently hooked up to city services. He also raised concerns about vehicles parked on lawns that may be leaking fluids and about plumes that cross municipal boundaries, saying, "A plume is a plume, and it's very close to the Conrail plume."
Reinke asked the council and administration to make soil and water safety a priority as the city pursues surface-level projects. The transcript does not record any formal direction from the council or staff action taken at the meeting in response to Reinke’s remarks.
