EAST CHICAGO | State environmental regulators will for the next 30 years be watching for leaks from the site of a defunct lead plant on the city's southeast side.

Owners of the former U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery, better known as USS Lead, are responsible for keeping toxins from leaving the 79-acre site at 5300 Kennedy Ave., and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management is taking public comments on a proposed post-closure permit for the facility.

Just 500 feet from homes in the city's Calumet neighborhood, the company did a brisk business snipping the tops off old batteries and recycling the lead plates inside until environmental protection laws forced the plant to close in 1985.

Sulfuric acid from the batteries wound up in the nearby Grand Calumet River, and tiny particles of lead suffused the surrounding area to the extent that a 2006 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigation found that up to 3 feet of soil would have to be removed from nearly every home site tested before the property could be considered clean.

Lead is a heavy metal that can cause nervous system disorders such as seizures, lowered intelligence and behavioral problems and is linked to skin and kidney cancers.

Contaminated materials from the facility were collected together under EPA Superfund guidance into a "corrective action management unit" -- a hazardous waste landfill -- on 11 acres of the USS Lead property. The landfill was completed in 2004.

The landfill walls extend 34 feet down into hard clay to prevent contaminants from leaving the site, and a clay cap was put on top to stop emissions from entering the atmosphere.

The proposed permit requires USS Lead's owners, now based in Redding, Calif., to monitor the cap for holes and check groundwater around the site for leaks until 2036.

IDEM estimated that 30 years of maintenance of the landfill would cost $2.6 million, but the company's owners said they don't have that kind of money and established a trust fund for monitoring the landfill with $100,000.

If something should go terribly wrong at the site, the matter would be referred to EPA Superfund officials for action, though the company's owners do have sufficient funds to monitor the clay cap and groundwater, IDEM spokeswoman Amy Hartsock said.

Comments on the proposed post-closure permit will be accepted by IDEM until Sept. 14.

OFFER YOUR INPUT

Information about a proposed post-closure permit for the former U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery can be found on the Indiana Department of Environmental Management Web site at www.IN.gov/idem/permits/land/notices/index.html or at the East Chicago Public Library, 2401 E. Columbus Drive.

Comments on the proposed permit will be accepted through Sept. 14 by writing to Ruth Jean, IDEM Office of Land Quality, 100 N. Senate Ave., MC66-20 IGCN 1101, Indianapolis, IN 46204-2251, or e-mailing rjean@idem.in.gov.