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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Environment - "Still no new rules on odor, scum in lakes: IDEM is moving slowly, and the Legislature may not move at all"

A lengthy story today in the Muncie Star-Press by Seth Slabaugh. Some quotes:

MUNCIE -- The Indiana Department of Environmental Management is finally taking steps to address phosphorus pollution that has caused taste and odor compounds in drinking water as well as human health risks in Indiana's lakes and reservoirs.

However, it appears the state Legislature will again turn its back on the phosphorus problem, the primary cause of lake eutrophication and resulting algal blooms.

"It is not likely that House Bill 1032 will get a hearing," Casey Arqawi, press secretary for state Rep. Dick Dodge, R-Pleasant Lake, said on Monday. * * *

The bill, which would place restrictions on the application of lawn fertilizer containing phosphorous, was originally placed in the House Committee on Natural Resources, but then it got transferred to the Committee on Environmental Affairs.

In late August 2011, state officials found high levels of blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, at eight of 13 public swimming beaches sampled, including Potato Creek State Park, Chain O'Lakes State Park and Raccoon State Recreation Area. In addition, sampling by Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis found high levels of cyanobacteria in Geist, Morse, Eagle Creek and Patoka reservoirs.

Central Indiana residents may recall a blue-green algal bloom in Prairie Creek Reservoir during the spring of 2010. The event produced remarkably large concentrations of taste and odor compounds called MIB and geosmin that affected 700,000 drinking water customers in Muncie, Indianapolis and other communities. * * *

Bruno Pigott, an assistant commissioner at the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDEM), said the agency was making rules to establish numeric standards for phosphorus in lakes. He said the rule-making process would take 18 months.

That was 18 months ago. What is the status of the rule-making today?

"We are in the midst of adopting new eutrophication criteria for natural lakes and reservoirs, including total phosphorus and chlorophyll a," Shivi Selvaratnam, a technical water quality specialist at IDEM, said in a recent interview. "There are only a handful of technical folks working on rule making at the agency. I was working on different rule-making that had a higher priority for the agency. Now that that rule-making is nearing completion, I can focus on nutrient rule making."

The higher priority for the agency was establishing "anti-degradation" standards to preserve the quality of water that is cleaner than minimum standards, she said.

ILB: Those anti-degradation rules have been scheduled for a Water Pollution Control Board that has been canceled several times now - i.e. Jan. 11, 2012 and Feb. 8, 2012. And the Board packet containing the draft rule has now been removed from the WPCB meetings site. Here is the long history.

Here is a long list of earlier ILB entries on phosphorus.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 24, 2012 11:54 AM
Posted to Environment