Metals refining Co.
site background
Metals Refining Company is located at 1723 Summer Street, Hammond, Indiana. The facility is located at the northwest corner of Summer Street (one of the principal thoroughfares in Hammond) and Hump Road. The property has been abandoned since 2002, but the date of the facility’s closure is unknown. Census data and aerial photography show that more than 7,000 residents are located within one mile of the site, with the closest residence located approximately 500 feet west of the facility.
Metals Refining is a former metals fabricating facility where lead smelting is believed to have occurred for several years. The Company began lead smelting at the site in 1920. At the time, it was one of the largest secondary lead smelters in the United States and was also a lead oxide plant. Sanborn insurance maps (Appendix A) show that lead was recycled at the site in the 1930s by the Glidden Company after they purchased the facility in the late 1920s. It is not known when lead smelting ceased at the facility.
In 2008, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, in a Preliminary Assessment Report, expressed concern "that airborne lead from the smelting activities may have settled into the soil in residential areas around the property," and that "nearby residents, especially children, may be exposed . . . through contaminated soil in residential yards."
EPA ID: INN000509964