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Thursday, October 12, 2006

Environment - More on NW Indiana environmental issues

Updating yesterday's ILB entry on the Pine transfer station and Feddeler landfill:

Pines transfer station. The Chesterton Tribune has a story that begins:

As expected, the Porter County Commissioners have appealed a decision by a state agency that issued a permit for a new waste transfer station on the Porter-LaPorte County Line Road.

In a suit filed in LaPorte Superior Court, the Porter County Commissioners seek a court ruling that would remand the case back to the Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication or compel that office to revoke its September decision in support of the Great Lakes Transfer Station and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

At the heart of the commissioners’ appeal is that IDEM improperly approved the permit for the transfer station in part because the permit was issued even though IDEM knew that Porter County would not grant a road access permit to allow the transfer station to operate.

Feddeler landfill. "Toxic dump may get superfund aid" is the headline to a story today in the Gary Post-Tribune. A quote:
The move comes as county officials renewed complaints of inaction by state environmental regulators, who learned that some 500 barrels of toxic chemicals had been illegally dumped at the site more than 30 years ago.

"We tried to deal with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management," said Lake County Commissioner Gerry Scheub, a member of the Solid Waste Management board.

"We've gotten more done with the EPA in three weeks than we did with IDEM in three years," Scheub said.

Indeed, see this ILB entry from April 30, 2004. The Munster (NW Indiana) Times reports "Federal EPA to investigate landfill." A quote:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed Wednesday to investigate toxic waste contamination at a shuttered landfill near Lowell.

Local officials. who expressed continued frustration with state regulators, praised the move, which they view as the first step toward getting funding for a cleanup effort that could cost up to $35 million.

"They're going to take an active part in it now, which is just fantastic," Lake County Commissioner Gerald Scheub, D-Schererville, said Wednesday after meeting with EPA officials. Federal money "is the only source of revenue that we have because (the Indiana Department of Environmental Management) hasn't cooperated with us at all. It's been their responsibility, and they've walked away from their responsibility." * * *

An inspection report from 1975 shows the state knew then that barrels of "hazardous waste" were being dumped at the landfill. That dumping occurred before state or federal regulations were in place to prevent it, says Bruce Palin. the head of IDEM's Office of Land Quality.

"Back during that time, it was not unusual for just about anything to be placed in dump sites, from not only household waste but industrial waste and what have you," Palin said Wednesday.

The state has no evidence that the dumping continued after 1975, Palin said, and recent tests by IDEM have not revealed a health threat.

"We have been up there the last two years and are going up there again this year to take water samples in the monitoring wells around the landfill," Palin said. "In the last two years, monitoring has not indicated any type of release occurring from the landfill site, so I don't think it's quite fair to say we haven't done anything."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 12, 2006 10:16 AM
Posted to Environment