Judge OKs settlement with US Steel over 2017 Indiana spill

HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) — A federal judge has approved a revised settlement with U.S. Steel, more than four years after one of the steelmaker’s Indiana plants discharged wastewater containing a potentially carcinogenic chemical into a Lake Michigan tributary. Tuesday’s decision granted the state and federal governments’ request to approve a revision of the consent decree, which was announced in April 2018. The Times of Northwest Indiana reports the April 2017 spill from a U.S. Steel plant in Portage, Indiana, sent 300 pounds of hexavalent chromium into a Lake Michigan tributary about 30 miles east of Chicago. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that toxic heavy metal might be carcinogenic if ingested.