TOWN OF PINES, Ind. (AP) – A utility must pay $12 million under a federal consent decree to remove soil contaminated by coal ash from around homes in a small northwest Indiana community where the local aquifer is tainted by the power plant waste. Northern Indiana Public Service Co. reached an agreement last week with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency detailing how the contamination at Portage County’s Town of Pines will be fully cleaned up. The Indianapolis Star reports that coal ash containing toxic heavy metals from a power plant was used as “fill” during construction at building sites and under the roads of the town of about 600 residents, tainting the community’s aquifer.
