Michigan City, Trail Creek Links of interest

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Michigan City Sanitary District to unveil new nature preserve at former Karwick dump site

By DONAVAN BARRIER Staff Writer

Oct 14, 2022

MICHIGAN CITY — A decade-long revitalization project by the Michigan City Sanitary District will

come to fruition next week with the opening of a new nature preserve on the site of a former landfill.

After

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, at the site at 802 S.

Karwick Rd. After the ceremony, the park will be open every day from sunrise to sundown.

The Sanitary District began cleaning up the area, used as a dump site from 1965 to 1971, after

heavy rains in April 2013 exposed buried waste. Erosion started causing debris to fall into Trail

Creek, so Michael Kuss, former district general manager, began work to stabilize the bank to

prevent further pollution.

“He was very effective in mobilizing resources,” Milatovic said. “[He brought in] special stone, glacial

rock and different personnel from different departments … to stabilize the banks.”

Once the initial preventative work was complete, Kuss hired Weaver Consultants Group to conduct

a site investigation. What they found was not good – nine acres of waste buried 6 to 9 feet deep.

Also discovered was arsenic and ammonia seeping into the creek, which was hurting the local

salmon population.

“Trail Creek is a salmon fishery,” Stanford said, “and salmon hate ammonia.”

In 2016, the designs for a nature preserve were completed. The plan included grading and taking the buried trash inland to keep it away from the creek. The trash would then be created into mounds and covered in soil and grasses, which will be covered with asphalt to create a parking lot.

A leachate collection system was also established to drain contaminated water. Partnering with SOX Erosion Solutions, the Sanitary District used SOX’s Turf Reinforcement Matting to reintroduce plants.

A mix of mulch and plant seeds native to Indiana were planted, and with the double-layered, knitted polyethylene mesh, will allow roots to grow and keep the soil secure to prevent further erosion.

Native trees and shrubs were also reintroduced, which will allow wildlife to come back into the area.

“I didn’t want a big flood to come along and take all of our work downstream,” Stanford said. “The[plants’] root system softens the blow of rain and slows down run off.”

James Meyer, attorney for the Sanitary District, hired Indianapolis-based environmental law firm Plews Shadley to procure funding for the cleanup through insurance settlements.

“We hired a team to go through all of the old insurance policies that predated pollution exclusions,” Stanford said.

In 2017, negotiations on the settlements began and the money that was collected the following year allowed the MCSD to begin work on the park.

On the west side of the preserve, the Cheney Run tributary has another project called the Stormwater Treatment Wetland. With land donated to the city by GAF, it will act as a buffer between the park and invasive species of plants, and simultaneously filter out pollutants naturally and release the water slowly to Trail Creek.

The runoff would be slowed and any chemicals and pollutants would sink to the bottom, to be consumed by the natural bacteria that inhabit the water, protecting the creek.

“We handled the site as a habitat restoration,” Stanford said. “The site should become attractive to wildlife, which are happy to return.”

The construction of Karwick Park cost around $2.4 million, which was paid for entirely through the efforts of Meyer and Plews Shadley, with an extra $800,000 going to fund continuous care of the lands over the next 30 years. Construction of the Cheney Run Wetland cost an additional $1 million.

Plans for creating playgrounds are still in the works, but there will be a nature trail for visitors to walk the area.