Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt met with residents from the lead-tainted West Calumet Housing Complex in East Chicago, Indiana, on Wednesday. The small community has been embroiled in a Flint-like catastrophe after high levels of lead were discovered across the public housing facility. Last summer, residents were notified that they had been exposed to heavy metals for years and would need to find new places to live. Only a few families remain.
“Please know that it is the EPA’s objective,” he continued, “to come in and make sure that the people’s health is protected here in East Chicago, and they can have confidence that their land, their health, will be secure in the long term. We are committed to doing that in a very efficient and effective way so that we can give back and see progress in the community.”
Local resident Akeeshea Daniels hopes that will be the case. She says the EPA is providing badly needed resources for her community. Daniels met with Pruitt too. She says he seemed serious and took detailed notes about her story.
“Each visit has cemented in my mind what many people have long known to be true,” he said.
“I have to pay water, sewage, trash, I have to buy a stove and a refrigerator. I was told not to take my furniture because of the lead.” The housing authority gave her $500 to buy new stuff, but she says it isn’t enough. “That’s not a bed,” she says.
