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Sunday, October 08, 2006

Environment - Stories on DNR Strip Mining, Dust Control for Farmers, and CSO Consent Decree Signed by Indianapolis [Updated - already]

DNR Strip Mining. Don Jordan, Hoosier Times Indiana Outdoors columnist, writes today:

Much to the consternation and outrage of Indiana's hunters and anglers and the residents of Daviess County, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources is about to strip mine the Glendale Fish and Wildlife Area, one of Indiana's crown jewels.

According to reports that appeared across the state last week and on national television, Indiana DNR Director Kyle Hupfer has allowed a subsidiary of Peabody Coal to conduct exploratory drilling on the 8,000-acre property and plans hearings on coal mining there.

According to various reports, Black Beauty Coal Co. approached Hupfer about exploratory drilling. He promptly produced a license for the Peabody subsidiary to proceed. If the core samples look good to Black Beauty, Hupfer says he will convene public meetings where residents can provide input about "future mining" - not IF there will be future mining. It sounds like a done deal, and the core samples aren't even back yet.

Residents who were around when the wildlife area was established in 1956 may remember when the DNR bought the land from "willing" land owners who were told their property would be set aside for fish and wildlife forever. There was never any mention of turning the land into a huge strip mine and destroying the peace and tranquility of an entire county.

The rumor is that Hupfer has been conspiring to trade away Glendale for 10,000 acres of "reclaimed" mine lands in west-central Indiana. Could it be that Hupfer is trading one of the most beautiful public recreation areas in the state for the reclaimed desert that is the Minnehaha Fish and Wildlife Area? Hey, trading Glendale for Minnehaha is not a good deal for us, period. Great deal for Peabody. * * *

Coal mining at Glendale is just the latest in what has become a string of public resources give-aways. In Our Man Mitch's nearly two years on the job, he and his boy Hupfer gave away the state forests to logging companies; turned over state park land to private business at the Dunes; and proposed handing canned hunt operators the right to operate for the next 12 years under what amounts to a state-sponsored monopoly.

What can possibly be worse than strip mining Glendale? I'm looking for a bigger move on the state parks next. It will be something like Six Flags Over McCormick's Creek.

The only hope of stopping this "privatization" train is at the state Legislature, which means there is no hope of stopping this on-going theft of the public's treasure. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will have to sign off on mining at Glendale, and in the past I would have predicted that is where the coal mine plan would stop. * * *

If hunters and anglers out there can't get together to stop this one, we might as well sell our gear or start fishing for catfish in pay ponds and hunting at one of those canned hunting "preserves" that will be making us the slob hunter capital of the Midwest.

It is too soon to lament Glendale's demise, but the smart money is on Peabody.

Dust Control for Farmers. From the Lafayette C&J, a story by Curt Slyder. It begins:
Local agriculture experts have differing opinions on how much an announced tightening of the controls on dust emissions will affect farmers.

Some say local agriculture already meets the standards. Others say the effects will be devastating.

"This will definitely affect agriculture," said Tippecanoe County farmer Alan Kemper. He thinks it could also affect consumers by driving up prices on meat and other agricultural products.

On Sept. 21, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a strengthening of the previous daily fine particle emissions standard by nearly 50 percent, from 65 micrograms of particles per cubic meter to 35 micrograms.

States must meet the new standard by 2015, with a possible extension to 2020 depending on local conditions.

It was earlier thought that agriculture and mining would be exempted from the new standards. But officials recently decided no particular industry could legally be excluded.

Indy Consent Decree.From a U.S. Department of Justice press release:
City of Indianapolis Agrees to Make $1.86 Billion in Improvements to Sewer System

WASHINGTON — The city of Indianapolis has agreed to make an estimated $1.86 billion worth of improvements to resolve longstanding problems with overflows from its sewer system, the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. Indianapolis will make the improvements over 20 years to reduce the number of overflows—which currently occur approximately 60 times per year—to four or fewer times per year. The city will also pay a penalty of $1,117,800, which will be divided evenly between the United States and Indiana. The city also will spend $2 million on a supplemental environmental project to eliminate failing septic systems.

[Updated] Thanks to TDW, here is a commentary from the Evansville Courier& Press by Steve Ford that I overlooked this morning. My favorite part:
One of the things the DNR will push is that it can use the money to buy more public land and that Glendale would be reclaimed. So what?

It's like somebody trying to force you to have a free nose job with the promise of a bigger, uglier nose in its place. I'm going to pass on that. I think the public will pass on free cosmetic surgery on two square miles of Glendale, too.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 8, 2006 10:20 AM
Posted to Environment