EPA: Water samples from plant discharge show no health risks

PORTAGE, Ind. (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency says preliminary tests indicate iron-contaminated wastewater that leaked from a northwestern Indiana steel plant into a Lake Michigan tributary presents no risk to public health. The EPA said Wednesday that surface water samples were taken near the outfall at the U.S. Steel Midwest plant in Portage and that federal and state agencies are continuing to investigate the cause of the discharge. U.S. Steel idled the plant about 30 miles east of Chicago as a precaution after it said a wastewater treatment facility experienced “an upset condition” that sent the rusty colored plume containing elevated iron levels into the Burns Waterway on Sunday.