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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Environment - More on: IDEM dissolves office of enforcement

Updating this ILB entry from Sunday Dec. 14th, quoting Gitte Laasby's lengthy story in the Gary Post-Tribune that began:

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management is dissolving its Office of Enforcement -- the office that responds to environmental violations, assures polluters comply with their permits, and deters violations.

"The Office of Enforcement as a separate entity will no longer exist," IDEM spokeswoman Amber Finkelstein confirmed to the Post-Tribune.

IDEM is also modifying its compliance and enforcement policy, narrowing the definitions of what constitutes the most serious environmental violations to say they must cause actual harm to human health or threaten the environment. The new policy also gives managers more discretion over when companies will face prosecution and penalties.

The closure is already taking place. The policy has not yet gone through the official process.

Two additional items of interest at this point.

First, on Sunday the Post-Tribune also ran an editorial that accompanied its front-page story. The ILB overlooked it at the time. The editorial begins:

If you were waiting for further proof that Gov. Mitch Daniels is friendly to industry at the expense of the environment, you need look no further than the two most recent shocking developments.

The first is that the Indiana Department of Environmental Management is closing its office of enforcement.

The second is a new set of policies that narrows the definition of environmental harm -- and investigates only after damage can be proven.

IDEM officials assure citizens they have nothing to fear because enforcement is being handed over to the separate divisions that oversee land, air and water.

That, they assure us, will help them serve their clients better. The problem is that they see "clients" as those businesses seeking permits rather than Hoosiers who -- by law -- are guaranteed clean air and water.

But the more egregious act might be the rewriting of policy, which calls for actual harm.

Second, as the ILB noted at the end of its entry on Sunday:
The currently "pending" version [08-006-NPD -- Pending] states that it supersedes the policy titled "Classification of Environmental Violations and Criteria For Referral of Such Violations to the Office of Enforcement dated February 5, 2003."

But until then, the 2003 document governing environmental enforcement is still in effect. Where is it? It is not on the IDEM webpage listing nonrule policies.

I, for one, despite having some familiarity with IDEM enforcement, have never seen this 2003 document.

The first thing Monday morning (yesterday), I asked folks in IDEM external affairs office for a copy of the 2003 policy. They are attempting to locate it.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 16, 2008 03:21 PM
Posted to Environment