Ray Mosley, a resident in East Calumet, said while residents appreciate Copeland blowing the whistle on the severity of the problem this summer, the mayor must push harder for more state and federal resources.

“The city of East Chicago does not have the fiscal resources, staff or personnel power to address the public health crisis and environmental catastrophe that the residents are coming face to face with every single day,” Mosley said. “The USS Lead Superfund site is a man-made, catastrophic health and environmental disaster. We need our mayor to acknowledge it and declare it as such.”

Copeland defended his decision to apply for federal funding.

“At the end of the day, why should we let these buildings stay idle as a reminder of the atrocities that happened to us?” Copeland said.

He said now that election season is over, he plans to reach out again to governor-elect Eric Holcomb about declaring the Superfund site an emergency disaster area.

Maritza Lopez, a resident in East Calumet, stressed it’s not the mayor’s lack of doing, but a lack of communication with residents.