« Ind. Law - "Blogs fair game for school code of conduct" | Main | Law - Controversy over voting machines in Pennsylvania cites 2003 Indiana election »

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Environment - More on Indiana and Lake Michigan pollution

Gitte Laasby of the Gary Post-Tribune has a story today headed "EPA still unsure on lake polluters." It begins:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency still has not determined how much pollution goes into Lake Michigan, despite a request from U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

Durbin re-quested the information after public outcry erupted over BP Whiting's wastewater permit this summer. He wanted to find out how much of various pollutants are discharged, which facilities discharge the most, and which pollutants pose the biggest threats to the environment and human health.

The intent was to determine what can be done to improve the water quality in Lake Michigan and what potential legislative steps need to be taken to reduce pollution.

In a 43-page response to Durbin's questions released to the Post-Tribune, the EPA states that because of limitations with the database that contains monitoring reports from the major facilities, the agency has not tried to calculate how much of each pollutant is discharged into Lake Michigan overall.

Here is the part of the story that the ILB found fascinating:
There are 565 wastewater permits in effect for facilities within the Lake Michigan basin. Of these, 113 are in Indiana, 251 are in Michigan, 193 in Wisconsin and eight in Illinois. In addition, states also issue general permits that cover a total of 4,238 facilities, but not all of them are located within the Lake Michigan basin.
Compare these numbers against the Lake Michigan shoreline of each state!

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 21, 2007 03:43 PM
Posted to Environment