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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Environment - Different takes on water pollution antidegradation rule progress

Patrick Guinance writes today in the NWI Times under the headline "State sees progress on water pollution rule." Some quotes:

INDIANAPOLIS | A critical water quality rule designed to head off controversies like the one that dogged BP's Whiting Refinery expansion last summer should be in place by this time next year, Indiana's top environmental regulator said Wednesday.

Indiana Department of Environmental Management officials told a legislative committee that study groups are sorting through a half-dozen issues crucial to crafting a new antidegradation policy. The rule would spell out the circumstance in which the state could allow increased pollution discharges into Lake Michigan and other "outstanding state resource waters."

"I think we are on our way to getting that type of document in place," said Rae Schnapp, water policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council.

IDEM Commissioner Thomas Easterly said if the committees of business, environmental and municipal leaders remain on track, a draft rule should be ready by year's end, and a final policy could be adopted by mid-2009.

"State's water-quality revisions hit snags" is the headline to the AP report by Rick Callahan that begins:
INDIANAPOLIS -- Revised water quality rules intended to protect Indiana's waters from pollution are taking longer than expected to draft and likely won't be finalized until mid-2009, the state's top environmental official said yesterday.

Thomas Easterly, the commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said in March that he hoped the new water quality rules could be in place by year's end.

But Easterly said yesterday that it has proven difficult for representatives of industry, municipalities and environmental groups to agree on the wording of the new so-called "antidegradation" rules.

His agency will use those rules as a guide when it decides whether to approve wastewater permits for new or expanded industrial operations or to require companies to take greater steps to reduce their pollution discharges.

Easterly said he hopes the new rules' wording is complete by the end of the year, followed by final approval by mid-2009 by the state's Water Pollution Control Board.

"By the end of this year we should know what everybody thinks the rule will say. I'm sure there'll still be discussions, but it should be relatively smooth after that," he said after speaking to a panel of lawmakers, other government officials and environmental stakeholders.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 28, 2008 10:00 AM
Posted to Environment