Toxins in Our Land

Event Information

10:59am - 10:59am

The Valparaiso Chain of Lakes Watershed Group will sponsor two passionate and knowledgeable speakers on pollution that has entered Lake Michigan and the landfill on the edge of our watershed. The speakers will begin at 7 PM on September 16 at the Porter County Administrative Building, 155 Indiana Ave., Valparaiso.

The first will feature Environmental Activist Larry Davis who has been following and analyzing the 49er landfill dating  back to 1982  when the landfill was receiving tens of thousands of gallons of hazardous waste including PCBs, pesticides, paint waste,  chlordane, asbestos, and other hazardous compounds dumped at the 49er without any liner or appropriate protection.   As a founding member of People Against Hazardous Landfill Sites, Larry studied, tested, and protested the dumping of toxins at that site believing that our environmental quality could be compromised.  Could this contamination now be threatening our drinking water?  Larry will also share his latest research regarding ground water contamination in East Chicago.

Our second speaker will be Aaron Corn,  Associate Attorney for Hoosier Environmental Council.  Aaron will provide an update regarding multiple recent discharges of pollution from steel mills into the Little Calumet and Burns Waterway. Aaron earned his J.D. from Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law. His diverse legal career has included working in both the private and public sectors as well as in the Indiana Attorney General’s Office.

The series of new discharges which exceed allowable limits have included cyanide, ammonia, and petroleum have resulted in massive fish kills, beach closings, shutdown of a major water intake, and the threat of law suits which Aaron will explain and summarize.   Aaron’s talk, which will follow Larry Davis’s, will in turn be followed by a Q & A session at Greeks Pizza one block east of the Administration Building.

The lectures and pizza Q & A are free and open to the public.  Invite friends, neighbors and anyone concerned about protecting our environment.  For further information, text or call Walt Breitinger at 210-477-7526.

Porter County Administration Building

Address:

  • 155 Indiana Avenue
  • Valparaiso, IN 46383