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Thursday, October 11, 2007

Environment - Still more on the U.S. Steel Gary Works/Grand Calumet permit, and related issues

This August 5th ILB entry begins with this quote from the Gary Post-Tribune:

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has drafted a permit allowing U.S. Steel Gary Works to continue discharging an average of 2,802 pounds of oil and grease per day into the east branch of the Grand Calumet River -- the same branch of the river the company is still trying to clean up.
Today the same reporter, Gitte Laasby, writes:
A $1 million study intended to help figure out how to lower the level of mercury in the Grand Calumet River is still not complete, at least three years after the state's original deadline.

Because of staff turnover, nobody at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management was able to answer when work on the study started, what exactly has been done so far and how much taxpayer money has been spent -- in cash or staff time.

IDEM's study is supposed to determine the maximum amount of mercury the Grand Calumet River can receive while still meeting water quality standards. The results would then be used to determine how much industry and municipalities would need to reduce their mercury discharges.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sampled the water and put together a water quality model, industries and municipalities supplied lab results, and local environmental groups donated their time.

But the data were never processed into a final report. Instead, four boxes of material are collecting dust at IDEM headquarters.

IDEM spokesman Steve Polston said although the agency is required to do the study, it can prioritize when to do it.

"We don't feel the urgency to do this right now," Polston said. "We get to decide when to do it based on an understanding of our own resources with staff and abilities."

Meanwhile, the Indiana State Department of Health continues to advise people not to eat any fish from the Grand Calumet River. * * *

Until IDEM knows the biggest sources of mercury in the river, the agency is unable to prioritize which of the discharging facilities to target for reductions to get the most bang for the buck, said Kathy Luther, former coordinator of the mercury study for IDEM.

"If you don't know where the priority of a pollutant is, you can throw a lot of money at one source and still not solve the problem," said Luther, who now works as the director of environmental management for the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission.

Luther said she believes the original deadline was 2004, but IDEM also had to do studies for pollutants in the other water bodies. "They have like a 15-year schedule. It's up to the state how they prioritize that schedule. IDEM wanted to do the easier ones first." * * *

Save the Dunes Executive Director Tom Anderson questioned how IDEM can issue wastewater permits to plants discharging into the Grand Calumet River -- from U.S. Steel to municipalities -- without knowing what reductions are needed to comply with Indiana law.

He said that without the study, IDEM is unable to convince dischargers that mercury reduction measures would make a difference.

While IDEM couldn't answer when the study started or how much it cost so far, Anderson said the agency previously provided written estimates of $1,050,000 to a mercury work group he was a member of. Not completing the study "would waste a considerable amount of public and private money," he said.

"It's always a concern when you spend so much money and don't get anything done," Anderson said.

The data are a snapshot of discharges at a certain time and become obsolete, he said. "At what point will anyone say, 'The data's so old it's not active,'" he said. "We collect data. Now it's not timely. We spend our money and spin our wheels."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 11, 2007 01:18 PM
Posted to Environment