East Chicago Public Housing Complex Has Lead Problem, EPA Warns
(CBS) -- Developing in northwest Indiana: Your home is not safe, and you should move out.
That's the message more than 1,000 residents are getting in East Chicago.
CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports.
On a beautiful summer day at the West Calumet Housing Complex, where nearly 700 children live, few are playing in their yards.
Even the play lot is not packed. Here's why: Huge signs are warning not to play in the dirt.
The grounds around all 346 units are contaminated with lead, the Environmental Protection Agency says.
"It's very scary. I have a one-year-old. He loves to play outside. He likes dirt. He just discovered what mud was," parent Morrissa Boleware says of her youngster. "He looks out the window and bangs on the window because he wants to go play outside, and he can't."
The signs went up three weeks ago. At the same time, the agency put down rubber mulch, in their words, "to provide a temporary protective barrier until EPA can dig up and remove the lead contaminated soil."
Carmen Navarro knew when she moved here five years ago that the complex had been built over an old lead smelting plant.
"I didn't think it was that bad at the time," Navarro says.
It's bad enough for the mayor of East Chicago to send a letter suggesting people move to protect their health. It's a little late for Marvella Briscoe's grandson.
"He was always complaining about stomach cramps," Briscoe says.
Three months ago tests showed Bryce had lead poisoning. She's waiting on the results of recent tests.
"I'm upset and scared," she says.
The EPA plans to remove contaminated soil around some of the yards later this summer.
The mayor of East Chicago has asked federal housing officials to provide vouchers to residents so they can move out.