# Research Note — 2026-05-30

## Confirmed facts
- EPA’s Northwest Indiana Urban Waters Partnership page says the partnership includes more than 70 local, state, and federal partners and was last updated March 31, 2026. [^1]
- EPA’s Northwest Indiana program-contacts page still lists Victoria Wittig, Ph.D. as the Northwest Indiana Urban Waters Ambassador at Purdue University Northwest in Hammond and was last updated January 30, 2026. [^2]
- The 2025 Northwest Indiana Urban Waters Federal Partnership Work Plan says the ambassador position is hosted through a shared agreement with Purdue University Northwest and that the NWI UWFP includes more than 80 local, state, and federal partners. [^3]
- The 2025 work plan also has a Hobart Marsh and Deep River section with Duck Creek Tributary restoration work, while separately naming the Hobart Marsh Conservation Area NIPSCO ROW. [^3]
- EPA’s Grand Calumet River AOC remediation page says Junction Reaches construction is scheduled to begin in Fall 2026 and Lake George Canal monitoring continues through 2027 with possible additional remediation in 2028. [^4]
- NIOSH’s EMF manual classifies walkthrough surveys, spot measurements, area monitoring, source surveys, and personal monitoring as distinct exposure-assessment families, and says spot measurements do not capture temporal variation. [^5]
- NIOSH’s waveform-measurement paper says ordinary ELF magnitude readings can miss static-field, harmonic, and non-sinusoidal features near worker locations, which supports rare hotspot-only waveform follow-up rather than routine pooling. [^6]

## What changed in the project files
- Added a local-context note in `file 'nwi-emf-pilot/README.md'` to keep Duck Creek Tributary restoration separate from the Hobart Marsh NIPSCO ROW and from EMF readings.
- Added matching route-metadata guidance in `file 'nwi-emf-pilot/02-field-protocol.md'` so Hobart Marsh / Deep River stops distinguish Duck Creek restoration context from ROW context.

## Practical implication
- The pilot’s metadata split is now a little cleaner: Hobart Marsh ROW, Duck Creek restoration, and actual EMF observations should stay in separate buckets. That makes the later comparison tables less mushy and more defensible.

## Sources used
- [^1]: https://www.epa.gov/urbanwaterspartners/northwest-indiana-urban-waters-partnership
- [^2]: https://www.epa.gov/urbanwaterspartners/program-contacts-northwest-indiana-indiana
- [^3]: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2025-05/2025-nwi-uwfp-work-plan.pdf
- [^4]: https://www.epa.gov/great-lakes-aocs/remediation-and-restoration-projects-grand-calumet-river-aoc
- [^5]: https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/5254/cdc_5254_DS1.pdf
- [^6]: https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/198316/cdc_198316_DS1.pdf

## Update — 2026-05-30 13:20 UTC

### Confirmed facts
- NIOSH’s USMS metal-detector HHE measured EMF inside walk-through arches and at 0, 30, and 61 cm outside the units, using EMDEX II, Multiwave System II, and a Holiday HI-3637 meter; it found field strength dropped quickly with distance and was background-like beyond 61 cm in the worker position. [^10]
- NIOSH’s transformer-office HHE measured magnetic fields from 5 Hz to 2,000 Hz, used personal dosimeters on five employees, and found that exposures varied with movement patterns and time spent near sources; it also recorded 100 mG at the transformer and 300 mG near a fan, with steep decline as distance increased. [^11]

### Working hypothesis
- The pilot should capture approximate source distance and source dwell time for identifiable point sources, because proximity and time near the source explain more than a generic “near source” label.

### Practical implication
- That should make utility-adjacent stops easier to compare and keep obvious proximity artifacts from masquerading as corridor signal.

[^10]: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hhe/reports/pdfs/1996-0113-2644.pdf
[^11]: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hhe/reports/pdfs/2009-0154-3101.pdf

## Update — 2026-05-30 12:15 UTC

### Confirmed facts
- EPA’s Grand Calumet River AOC page says Junction Reaches construction is scheduled to start in Fall 2026, and Lake George Canal monitoring continues through 2027 with possible follow-on remediation in 2028. [^7]
- NIPSCO’s electric AMI page says the electric AMI rollout is phased over about 490,000 electric customers, starts in March 2024, usually takes less than 15 minutes, may require access if the meter is inside or behind a locked gate, and may leave a door hanger if the customer is not home. [^8]
- The electric AMI page also says that if a meter needs to be exchanged to complete the module install, the exchange is handled by a subcontractor or NIPSCO employee. [^8]
- NIPSCO’s gas AMI page says the gas AMI rollout is phased over about 870,000 gas customers, the install usually takes about 15 minutes, and meter exchanges can require a temporary gas shutoff plus a relight. [^9]
- The gas AMI page also says access may be requested if the meter is inside or behind a locked gate, and a door hanger is left if the customer is not home. [^9]

### Working hypothesis
- The pilot should treat AMI visit workflow as route metadata, not as exposure: electric vs gas, install vs exchange, access requested vs no access, door hanger vs no door hanger, and relight/shutoff vs none.

### Practical implication
- That gives the field log a cleaner split between utility operations and actual EMF readings, and it keeps the 2026–2028 Grand Calumet cleanup windows from getting smeared into the exposure story.

[^7]: https://www.epa.gov/great-lakes-aocs/remediation-and-restoration-projects-grand-calumet-river-aoc
[^8]: https://www.nipsco.com/services/work-in-your-neighborhood/advanced-metering-ami/electric-ami
[^9]: https://www.nipsco.com/services/work-in-your-neighborhood/advanced-metering-ami/gas-ami