A state analysis of local wind patterns suggest that the lead released by the mill complex could be blowing north and west toward Chicago or south toward the Indiana community of Chesterton.

The public voiced frustration about arsenic and lead contamination, demolition of the West Calumet Housing Complex and possible groundwater contamination.

Community leaders called on Indiana's Congressional representatives to oppose the cuts ahead of the approval deadline.

About 50 people attended Wednesday's public hearing on the plan to cleanup land in and around an East Chicago industrial site.

The EPA said Monday it issued two unilateral administrative orders for residential areas slated for cleanups in East Chicago's USS Lead Superfund site.

Industry groups cheered the move, while environmental groups continue to decry the Trump Administration's rollback of Obama-era climate regulations.

A Congressional subcommittee last month passed an 8 percent across the board cut to the EPA’s 2018 budget. That’s far less drastic than the 31 percent cut proposed by President Trump.

The site has gone unused since Bridgestone Firestone closed its 300-worker air-spring manufacturing plant in 2009 and moved production to Mexico.

The grants announced Wednesday include $300,000 each for Indianapolis, Bloomington and Connersville.

Over 700 Indiana public schools will have their drinking water tested for lead contamination this summer.