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Friday, September 17, 2004

Environment - Stories Today

"County may sue state on landfill" is the headline to this story today in the Gary Post Tribune, that begins:

CROWN POINT — Lake County officials are holding the hammer over the state Department of Environmental Management: deal with the mess at the Feddeler landfill or get ready for court. At a meeting with IDEM officials this week, representatives of the county Solid Waste Management District board outlined options for dealing with the closed landfill on Indiana 2 near Lowell, according to County Commissioner Gerry Scheub.

If IDEM doesn’t see to it the site is either capped or emptied, the county will sue the agency, said Scheub, the Waste Management Board’s chairman. “IDEM didn’t do their part to make sure this site was run properly, and the people down there are paying for it,” Scheub said. The landfill was supposed to hold only construction and demolition debris, but hazardous waste from Spartan Chemicals was illegally dumped there at some point.

IDEM is working to make sure R&M Enterprises, the corporate parent of now-bankrupt Feddeler, properly closes the site, according to Bruce Palin of IDEM. * * * Palin said IDEM will likely present a report to the Solid Waste Board within the next couple weeks, detailing the amount of progress at the Feddeler site and describing the plans to finish the containment work there.

"Tire recyclers facing criminal charges" is the headline to this story today in the Muncie StarPress. Some quotes:
MUNCIE - For five years, two brothers who owned the CR3 tire recycling business knowingly or intentionally violated the state's environmental management laws, authorities alleged Thursday. As a result, Michael Gruppe and William Gruppe III are facing six felony charges apiece. A major tire fire destroyed CR3 on Aug. 1, 2003.

"Disregard for laws that are a threat to the public's health cannot be tolerated," Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter said in an interview. "These are class D felonies [each] punishable by six months to three years incarceration and fines up to $10,000." The criminal charges include illegal disposal of waste tires, creating a fire hazard, and storing waste tires without a certificate of registration.

"New rules unveiled to battle toxic air: Regulations part of reduction effort" reports the Louisville Courier-Journal today:
Louisville air regulators yesterday unveiled six new and eight modified regulations that make up its proposed program to reduce toxic air. The regulations are designed to allow the metro government to curb toxic air pollution within six years — a much faster pace, officials said, than if they allowed the federal government to do the job.

"It will absolutely make a difference," Art Williams, director of the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District, said of the program.

A study completed last year identified health risks from toxic air pollution that were higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency previously had estimated for anywhere in the country.

The regulations require 173 industrial facilities to more thoroughly report emissions of 38 toxic chemicals believed to pose health risks to Louisville residents. The companies would need to determine whether their emissions pose an unacceptable risk. If so, they would need to reduce emissions or seek an exemption.

"Judge hears Elkhart River dispute" reads the headline to this story in today's Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. Some quotes:
ALBION – Attorneys for and against converting the Elkhart River into a regulated drain made oral arguments for their cases during a judicial review hearing Wednesday.

Representing four environmental organizations, four municipalities and three couples, Attorney Martin Lucas argued that the Joint Noble-LaGrange County Drainage Board did not have the authority to declare the river a regulated drain and the data the board used to justify the decision was not scientifically replicable.

For the drainage board, attorney J. Everett Newman III said that the river needs to be maintained for the good of the landowners along it, as well as for the more than 500 miles of county roads in its watershed.

The issue at hand is the drainage board’s May 2003 decision to designate the river a regulated drain, allowing the county to perform maintenance work on the river and assess property owners in the watershed. A minimum ditch assessment of $5 per parcel was approved.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 17, 2004 09:25 AM
Posted to Environmental Issues