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Thursday, July 15, 2004

Environment - Stories Today

Landfill. "Trash hits the road: With landfill closing, costs likely to increase for residents," is the headline to this story today in the Munster Times that begins:

The closing of Munster's landfill might mark the end of local resident frustration, but it also leaves Lake and Porter counties and south suburban Chicago at the mercy of outside facilities.

With no more landfills immediately on the horizon in the region, trash must be hauled out of the region to other landfills in Indiana and across state lines. With Munster's facility now closed, the 30 percent of trash it handled from Lake County will now be transferred to the Newton County landfill, about 55 miles south.

The region is not alone. Nationally, trash must travel greater distances for disposal as landfills dwindled from about 8,000 in 1988 to 2,314 just 10 years later, according to the Environmental Protection Agency Region 5.

Indiana has 35 landfills, compared to 130 in the 1980s, according to Bruce Palin, deputy assistant commissioner of land quality for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

Don't miss the great photo.

Asbestos. "Asbestos removal costs Hanover extra $90,000" is the headline to this Times story that begins:

CEDAR LAKE -- Removing excessive amounts of asbestos discovered during Hanover School Corp.'s renovation projects will cost $90,000 more than originally expected.

"We had extreme amounts of asbestos identification," Dave Mankowski told the School Board Tuesday. "A lot of flooring at Jane Ball was asbestos," said Mankowski, who is senior project manager for renovations at Hanover Central Junior/Senior High School and Jane Ball Elementary School, which was built in 1958.

The original estimate for asbestos removal at the schools was $45,000, based on reports obtained through environmental consultant Alliance Indiana. That figure has now been pushed to $135,000, said Jan Bapst, assistant to the superintendent. * * * School Board President Marilyn Kaper blamed Alliance, which maintains the project's management plan and does periodic inspections at the corporation's buildings, for not catching the excessive asbestos. * * *

"You know with construction that there are always hidden issues, but they really hit it kind of low and this is their area of expertise," Kaper said. "I'm kind of disappointed in that."

Since the asbestos is non-friable, which is considered less dangerous than the friable form, officials said it might be removed at a lower cost. Mankowski said Gariup Construction, general contractor for the project, could do the removal, which requires only an OSHA-certified remover rather than an asbestos abatement specialist.

Brownfields. "King: A future boon; Critics: A boondoggle," reads the headline to this story in the Gary Post Tribune. Some quotes:
GARY — It takes vision to see much of value on the western edge of U.S. Steel’s mammoth Gary Works complex. The 486-acre parcel, called simply “the West End” in EPA documents, is a barren moonscape of steel slag, lime dust and likely very toxic waste.

To Mayor Scott L. King, who helped negotiate a deal that would give the city a 200-acre chunk of the site, it looks like prime real estate. To King’s critics, it looks like an environmental albatross.

“What are we going to do? Spend millions to clean it up for U.S. Steel and then give it away?” complained City Councilman Chuck Hughes, one of the mayor’s most vocal critics, at a recent council meeting. * * *

What the city really gets for taking over the land is also in question. This fall, U.S. Steel will begin testing to see what contaminants linger after decades of using the West End as a dumping ground. In fact, almost all of the parcel is slag, a steel waste byproduct — as deep as 50 feet— that filled in the lakefront.

By order of the EPA, the corporation is required — at its expense — to clean the site to an “industrial standard,” meaning the land would be safe for adult workers spending a few hours a day in buildings there. Cleaning up the site to a condition that allows Gary taxpayers to safely live or stroll there may cost the city millions more.

King includes the parcel in his long-term plan for lakeshore development. The West End is adjacent to the defunct NIPSCO Mitchell generating station, which the mayor hopes to condemn for redevelopment. Just this week NIPSCO let it be known it no longer has a desire to restart the plant, though that was the thinking only a few weeks ago. Farther west along the shoreline are several hundred acres owned by Majestic Star Casino owner Don Barden.

Someday, King sees the lunar landscape lush and green with parks, stores and even homes “I may not live to see it, to enjoy it,” King said. “I did not put a deal together looking at acres of abandoned, desolate land. ... That land, cleaned up, will not be on the market long.” * * *

George Hamper, chief of the EPA corrective action division, noted the agency has seen more former hazardous waste sites returning to productive use. “It’s multimillions of dollars, but that’s lakefront property that’s pretty valuable,” Hamper said. “It’s expensive not to clean it up, if you think about it.”

The city will have to invest some cash to clean up the site, but state and federal money likely would be available, said Tamara Ohl, who also oversees the cleanup of the Grand Calumet River for the EPA. The land is in the footprint of U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky’s Marquette Greenway project, said Katherine Bensen-Piscopo, spokeswoman for Visclosky.

For aging cities, the only open land is likely property tainted with pollutants, said Ron Novak, Hammond director of environmental management. Few private investors will take up the challenge without public money — state, federal or local — making costs competitive with building in suburban farm fields, he noted. Novak supervised a $30 million-plus redevelopment to turn a former slag dump into Lost Marsh golf course and wetlands area. The project was paid for with state and federal grants and city casino revenue and now is a civic jewel, Novak said.

Air Pollution.A Washington Post story today reports:
The Environmental Protection Agency is moving to take legal action against 22 electric utilities for violating the Clean Air Act and has referred 14 cases to the Justice Department, agency officials said yesterday. Justice Department officials are considering whether to file lawsuits in the 14 cases, and eight more cases are in the pipeline, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing the cases.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 15, 2004 08:07 AM
Posted to Environmental Issues