The Grand Calumet River is a tributary located
in Northwest Indiana, which flows to Lake
Michigan. Years of industrial pollution caused
by nearby steel mills, petro-chemical plants
and oil refineries contaminated river sediments
with oil and other pollutants. The primary
contaminants of concern are carcinogenic
Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs).
As part of a sediment dredging/remediation project Sitelab Corporation
(Sitelab) was hired to analyze 100 sediment samples collected from a post-
dredge area covering a 1 mile stretch of river. Sitelab turned to SES to
help analyze the data and develop graphics to display test results. SES
evaluated the PAH data distribution and identified the presence of “hot-
spots” falling well outside the more normally distributed data. Next, SES
contoured the data using Golden Software’s “Surfer” software. SES
created blanking files that followed the edge of the winding Grand Calumet
River. Blanking files are used to eliminate data values calculated by Surfer
for areas outside of the study area.
SES Value Added
Collaborated with Site-Lab Corporation to
analyze the distribution of PAHs in river
sediment
Performed complex grid-file blanking
Created river-sediment PAH contour maps
Client
Steve Greason
Stantec Consulting Services
(978) 363-2299
