Three staff members of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources have been inducted into the Society for Innovators of Northwest Indiana for their work on the Grand Calumet River Partners in Restoration Team.

The team received the society's top award for team innovation, called the Chanute Prize.

The DNR staff members are John Davis, deputy director; Carl Wodrich, director of ecological services; and Emily Stork, staff ecologist.

Other members of the team included representatives from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice, and two representatives from industry — John Fekete, retired from Inland Steel; and Kay Nelson, Northwest Indiana Forum.

The Grand Calumet, one of the most polluted Lake Michigan tributaries, is undergoing a $288 million cleanup that started in 2006 through the EPA's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The project, which involves remediating polluted sediment, removing invasive species, and reestablishing streamside habitats, will continue for several more years with work by the EPA, the City of East Chicago and the City of Gary. Of the 15 miles of the river, less than 3 miles remain to be remediated.

To view all DNR news releases, please see dnr.IN.gov.

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Media contact: Marty Benson, DNR Division of Communications, (317) 233-3853.