The park service says water and beach sand samples taken last week came back below laboratory reporting limits for hexavalent chromium, so it reopened the beaches Monday afternoon.

The company reported Tuesday that it leaked an unknown amount of wastewater containing hexavalent chromium into Burns Waterway in Portage

Police in Lafayette and the sheriff's office in surrounding Tippecanoe County said that high water early Thursday forced some roads to be closed in the area.

The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled the public access extends to the Ordinary High Water Mark, where beach gives way to dunes and vegetation.

The National Park Service says the lakeshore's West Beach area along the Lake-Porter county line in northwestern Indiana will be closed from Thursday through Nov. 9.

The reductions are necessary because of a decline in fish that salmon and trout eat, such as alewife and rainbow smelt.

The EPA says the projects are expected to stop or capture 13 million gallons of untreated stormwater from contaminating swimming beaches.

The Merrillville-based utility says the demolition of its Dean H. Mitchell power plant and the site's environmental cleanup will cost an estimated $18 million.

The DNR grants will fund 33 projects in 25 counties and encompass the watersheds of 36 lakes and streams.

National Park Service and DNR officials say the issue is how the pavilion will be classified.