Late in February, the Palladium-Item (IN) reported:

Springwood Lake [in Richmond, Indiana] will remain closed to area fishermen for at least a year and could be closed well beyond that, Richmond park board members were told Thursday.

The reason is contamination, including cancer-causing heavy metals, found in sediment on the lake's floor during testing over the past few years. State officials also believe that contaminants continue to seep into the lake from industrial sites past and present above the lake on the city's northwest side.

Some believe that area may include old industrial dump sites.

State officials told Richmond Mayor Sally Hutton and city park department board members that tests found contaminants including lead, PCBs, cadmium, chromium, cyanide, arsenic and trichloroethylene (a solvent) in the sediment.

[...]

"We do know there is historical contamination (in the lake) and we know there is a need for more investigation," said IDEM spokeswoman Amy Hartsock. "There has not been a fish consumption advisory issued for the lake at this time, but we do support the city's decision to close the lake to fishing."

This is a first for us. We've never heard of Trichloroethylene being discovered in sediments below a lake. We're not saying it doesn't happen, just that it's the first we've heard this kind of story. It raises a number of questions for us:

1. What levels of TCE were discovered in the sediment?
2. If the sediment contains TCE, does that mean the lake water contains TCE?
3. If the lake water contains TCE, is the lake itself a source of toxic TCE vapors (that is, is TCE evaporating from the lake and contaminating the air?)
4. And of course, from where did this TCE come?

Note: We recognize there are other toxins involved here and don't mean to suggest they are unimportant. But as readers know, we have a very narrow focus.

We'll keep you posted as we learn more. Meantime, you can read the full story here.