Lead and the ground at Beck's Lake: the environmental-health record

2009 — 2026

A dump under a neighborhood park: The county's lead record runs on two tracks: the health department's standing lead program, and the federal cleanup of one contaminated ground. The program first. The county health department's Environmental Health division carries a Lead and Healthy Homes Program, and its nursing division carries case management for children with elevated blood lead levels; the department's 2013 annual report records its Lead Based Paint Hazard Control work in a single documented specimen year — staff working twenty-six health fairs and other public events in 2013 to test children for lead and teach prevention, testing 149 children at those events alone, under a three-year HUD hazard-control grant whose outreach requirements the work exceeded. The ground is Beck's Lake, in the LaSalle Park neighborhood on the city's west side.

The federal record states the site's history plainly: the Beck's Lake ground was used as a dumping ground from the 1930s to the mid-1950s, before the city developed LaSalle Park over and around it from 1959. Preliminary sampling in 2009 found elevated levels of metals below the surface. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed Beck's Lake on the Superfund National Priorities List in December 2013. On 2 October 2015 the city and Honeywell International finalized their agreement with the EPA to investigate: a focused remedial investigation of the forty LaSalle Park properties east of Falcon Street. The investigation of 2016–2019 found lead and arsenic in the park's soil and elevated arsenic in the groundwater, waste material not extending beyond the park's borders, and two nearby residences with lead and arsenic above the EPA's removal levels.

On 22 February 2022 the EPA announced the cleanup agreement with Honeywell and the city: soil in the park above the agency's residential removal level of 400 parts per million of lead would be excavated, backfilled with clean soil, and capped with one to two feet of additional clean soil — ground above 1,200 parts per million in the top foot excavated and capped with two feet — and the two residential yards' contaminated sections excavated to two feet and backfilled. The work's present state, as the EPA's remedial project manager stated it to the Common Council's Utilities Committee on 20 August 2026, is that the immediate risk from direct contact with the soil has been eliminated, that the site remains under remediation and monitoring, and that the agency's 2025 Residential Lead Directive may bring additional homes into the cleanup. The city's Reparatory Justice Commission reported in 2026 that the LaSalle Park neighborhood has the lowest life expectancy in St. Joseph County; the finding is the commission's, the ground's contamination history is the EPA's, and the two records stand here side by side as their makers made them, neither merged into the other.

Sources:

1. St. Joseph County Department of Health, 2013 Annual Report — the Environmental Health division's Lead and Healthy Homes Program; the Lead Based Paint Hazard Control work of 2013 (twenty-six events; 149 children tested at events; the three-year grant's outreach requirements exceeded); and the nursing division's case management for elevated blood lead levels.
2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "EPA will oversee cleanup of LaSalle Park and two residential yards at the Beck's Lake Superfund site in Indiana," 22 February 2022 (epa.gov) — the dumping history of the 1930s to mid-1950s, the December 2013 National Priorities List listing, the soil sampling above the 400-parts-per-million residential removal level, and the excavation, backfill, and capping remedy for the park and the two yards.
3. City of South Bend release, "City, Honeywell Finalize Agreement with EPA on Assessment at Beck's Lake," 2 October 2015 (docs.southbendin.gov) — the 2015 administrative settlement and order on consent, the focused investigation of the forty LaSalle Park properties east of Falcon Street, the park's development from 1959, and the 2009 preliminary sampling that found elevated metals below the surface.
4. City of South Bend, LaSalle Park / Beck's Lake Focused Remediation presentation, 11 March 2022 (southbendin.gov) — the 2016 and 2019 sampling results (lead and arsenic in soil; elevated arsenic in groundwater; waste not beyond the park's borders; two residences above removal levels) and the remedy thresholds (excavation above 1,200 parts per million; capping above 400).
5. South Bend Tribune, 21 August 2026 — the EPA remedial project manager's presentation to the Utilities Committee of 20 August 2026 (immediate direct-contact risk eliminated; remediation and monitoring continuing; the 2025 Residential Lead Directive's possible expansion to more homes); and South Bend Tribune, 13 May 2026 — the Reparatory Justice Commission's report and its LaSalle Park life-expectancy finding.