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Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Environment - Two interesting Indiana IDEM stories

The Madison Courier has a report that IDEM is offering a free utility rate analysis to at least some local governmental units:

The [Hanover] Town Council received a letter from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management offering to perform a water-rate analysis for the town at no cost. The town already had planned to hear a proposal from a utility rate consultant at its next regularly scheduled meeting, Tuesday, March 1.

Seifert informed council members of the letter it received from IDEM. He asked if they would still be interested in hearing from the rate adjuster during its next meeting or if they would want to only take advantage of IDEM’s proposal.

Seifert said IDEM’s proposal to perform a water-rate analysis for free was worth taking a look at, but that the letter did not say how long it would take for the department to perform the analysis or how comprehensive it would be.

Seifert suggested keeping the appointment with the consultant, whose company has handled Hanover’s rate adjustments in the past. “There’s something to be said for continuity,” he said.

Council members agreed but thought it would be a good idea use IDEM’s offer as a second opinion. Seifert said he would call IDEM to find out more about its offer.

The Winchester News-Gazette reports:
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) has asked Union-Go Dairy to tear up and repour the concrete perimeter of a dairy barn. An IDEM official Friday said 800 linear feet of concrete was poured when temperatures were too cold for it to cure properly.

IDEM public information officer Amy Hartsock said the department received a call from another party (not the dairy) reporting a concern about about the concrete situation. The call prompted a site visit and inquiry by IDEM officials.

She said construction workers pouring the concrete covered it as they were supposed to, but did not apply heat. Union-Go personnel cooperated with the IDEM inquiry and agreed to take care of the deficiency.

"They, of their own volition made a determination that the concrete did not set up right and they went ahead and redid it," Hartsock said. "They were going to check it out and let us know what their findings were. Instead of waiting for us to tell them to redo it, they went ahead with the process.

"They are working cooperatively with us on this."

Hartsock said the footer in question is the structural support for a dairy barn.

She said the incident is not considered to be an official IDEM violation because it was followed up on when noted. No notice of violation was issued.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 22, 2005 06:54 PM
Posted to Environment