# Research Note — 2026-05-26

## Confirmed facts
- NIOSH publishes a technical manual for measuring occupational electric and magnetic field exposures, and it explicitly treats EMF measurement as a protocol-driven exposure assessment task.
- The former Cities Refinery and CITGO Terminal site in East Chicago is documented by EPA as a large industrial facility with prior EM survey work, buried utility corridors, and an industrial land-use context.
- EPA materials for the Grand Calumet / Indiana Harbor area reinforce that this is a heavily industrialized corridor with long-running environmental management and remediation activity.
- NIPSCO’s 2025 rate-case material confirms ongoing investment in transmission/distribution substations and monitoring equipment, which makes utility-adjacent site classes worth including in the pilot design.

## Working hypotheses
- The pilot should separate ELF magnetic-field measurements from any optional RF follow-on so the data do not get mashed into one mystery soup.
- Site selection will be stronger if it explicitly stratifies by source class: utility-adjacent, industrial fence-line, traffic/rail, and inland control.
- Repeated spot measurements at a few points each session are a better QA/QC check than pretending every reading is equally trustworthy.
- Source-state notes matter: whether equipment is running, traffic is active, or a site is quiet may explain peaks better than location alone.

## Material update made
- Tightened the field protocol to keep ELF and optional RF readings separate.
- Added source-class and repeat-reading QA/QC language.
- Updated the analysis plan to compare source classes and preserve repeated-measure checks.

## Sources used
- https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/98-154/default.html
- https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/documents/former_cities_service_ghd_investigation_results_report_phase_i_10-31-19.pdf
- https://www.nipsco.com/our-company/about-us/regulatory-information/electric-rates/2025-electric-rate-case
- https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2025-05/2025-nwi-uwfp-work-plan.pdf

## Update — 2026-05-26 22:15 CT

## Confirmed facts
- NIOSH’s EMF manual remains the clean methods anchor: it is protocol-driven and contains 16 exposure measurement protocols.
- EPA’s former Cities Refinery / CITGO Terminal report shows that the East Chicago perimeter investigation had to adapt to congested underground utilities, and it documents an existing electromagnetic survey that found magnetic anomalies consistent with buried pipes.
- NIPSCO’s 2024 IRP says the utility expects major near-term grid change: transmission reliability upgrades continue, and the preferred plan adds about 900-1,150 MW of storage plus 350 MW of short-term thermal PPAs by 2028-2029 to handle D-LOL accreditation changes.
- The same IRP says NIPSCO is also planning for large new load growth, including data centers, which means utility-adjacent site conditions may change quickly over the next few years.

## Working hypotheses
- For this pilot, the best gain is still better source-state metadata, not a fancier meter.
- Utility-adjacent stops should be treated as a distinct class, with energized/load/idle/maintenance state logged every time.
- The analysis should test whether peaks are tied to operating state, access constraints, or buried-utility context instead of treating them all as location effects.

## Material update made
- Added explicit utility-state and buried-utility context to the field protocol.
- Added source-state and infrastructure-context fields to the analysis plan.

## Sources used
- https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/98-154/default.html
- https://www.nipsco.com/docs/librariesprovider11/rates-and-tariffs/irp/nipsco_2024-irp.pdf
- https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/documents/former_cities_service_ghd_investigation_results_report_phase_i_10-31-19.pdf

## Update — 2026-05-26 23:20 CT

## Confirmed facts
- NIOSH’s EMF manual gives the project a protocol-first anchor for occupational-style field measurements, and CDC’s spot-measurement material notes probe alignment in three orthogonal directions on a stand for repeatable readings.
- NIPSCO says it is installing electric AMI across roughly 490,000 residential and business customers in phases over about three years starting in March 2024.
- NIPSCO’s system-upgrade page says the company has an ongoing infrastructure modernization plan across its 32-county service area, with automated switching and smart-meter monitoring among the stated benefits.

## Working hypotheses
- AMI meter exchanges and active utility work should be logged as a transient source-state, not treated as a whole new exposure class.
- Spot measurements will be cleaner if probe height and orientation stay fixed across repeats, especially near utility equipment where directionality can matter.
- If future sessions show differences near active utility work, the first question should be whether the difference tracks work status rather than geography.

## Material update made
- Added AMI / system-upgrade context to the project’s local frame.
- Tightened field protocol QA/QC to keep probe orientation consistent.
- Extended the analysis plan to compare active utility-work stops against quiet utility-adjacent stops.

## Sources used
- https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/98-154/default.html
- https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/98-154/default.html
- https://www.nipsco.com/services/work-in-your-neighborhood/advanced-metering-ami/electric-ami
- https://www.nipsco.com/services/work-in-your-neighborhood/system-upgrades