In 2015, a flood of contaminated water used to fight a fire at Indiana’s Warsaw Chemical Company spilled into nearby Winona Lake. The spill carried car wash dyes downhill from the plant, melting the February ice at the lake’s surface and leaving limp silhouettes of fish floating in water stained a deep blue.

The spill occurred near my grandparents’ longtime home, a cottage built by my grandfather with tall windows and an overhang roof. I spent many summers there, swimming in the seaweed-ribboned water beyond the front yard.

My grandmother had lived on Winona for much of her life, hosting family gatherings and playing church organ until she died of breast cancer in 2003. At the time, I remember my family speculating whether her illness could be traced back to the factories ringing the lake’s northern shore.

Soon after the spill, authorities conducted tests on Winona to gauge the full extent of the damage. They all came back negative. The chemicals that washed into the lake had vanished, diluted away in the water of my summers.