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Saturday, December 11, 2004
Environment - Recent stories
"Lakes up costs for new water treatment plant: Current facility likely to be fined before money is available," is the title to a story published Friday, 12/10/04 in the Richmond Palladium-Item. A quote:
LIBERTY, Ind. -- Complying with stricter wastewater permit standards required because the town is upstream from two recreational lakes adds $1 million to the cost of a new treatment plant, engineer Marty Wessler said Thursday."Opinions aired on mercury emissions" was the headline to a story published Thursday, 12/9/04 in the Vincennes Sun-Commercial. Some quotes:Even so, there are no state or federal funds earmarked to help towns in that situation. Liberty needs $5.8 million, which includes the additional $1 million for stricter compliance, to build a new treatment plant and upgrade its collection system. The council hopes to trim that total before bids are taken.
Outreach coordinator Michael Layman of the Army Corps of Engineers told the council at a special meeting Thursday it could seek funds through the federal environmental infrastructure program but it wouldn't receive any special consideration because Brookville Lake is a corps flood-control project. Federal funds are a longshot now, Layman said.
"Our funds are at the mercy of Congress. You can only squeeze so much blood out of a turnip. With a $300 trillion deficit, money is hard to come by," Layman said.
Four Indiana projects were on the federal list this year for funding, but none received money, Layman said. The town's project likely would be on the shelf for five years if it waits for federal funding, Layman said.
Liberty likely will be cited and fined by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management before then for violations at its 30-year-old plant, Wessler said.
Those affected by pending state rules to reduce mercury emissions from electric power plants were able to air their opinions during the fourth in a series of public hearings conducted Wednesday by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM)."Water tower battle brews: Valparaiso homeowners might try to halt construction," was the headline to this story Friday, 12/10/04 in the Munster Times. This story updates earlier ILB entries from 11/30/04 and 11/26/04 (2nd item). Friday's story reported:As required by the federal Clean Air Act, the US Environmental Protection Agency is due to finalize federal guidelines on mercury reduction by March 15. This meeting was part of a consultative process to determine what type of rules should be adopted by Indiana in order to comply with the upcoming new federal guidelines.
The principle purpose of this public hearing was to debate a petition filed by the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC) with IDEM's Air Pollution Control Board (APCB) last June to require Indiana to adopt a more stringent standard of 90 percent reduction in mercury output by 2008. The U.S. EPA standards set to come into effect by March 15 require a 70 percent reduction by 2018.
VALPARAISO | The Knollcreek Homeowners Association again has to decide if it wants to fight city hall, or, in this case, the city's Water Department.In a preliminary review before an administrative law judge this week, the city argued the association had no legal standing to file a complaint with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. The homeowners claimed the city violated the notification requirements when seeking an IDEM permit to build a million-gallon water tower in the Meridian Woods retirement community on Campbell Street.
The administrative law judge for the IDEM office of environmental adjudication asked the association's lawyer, Patrick McEuen, to submit his arguments by March 15. McEuen said the city would have 30 days to respond to his arguments and he would have 15 days to file a rebuttal.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 11, 2004 11:28 AM
Posted to Environment