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Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Environment - A number of recent Indiana environmental stories [Updated]
Several from Lake County:
- "Steelmaker plans landfill for toxic mill wastes: ArcelorMittal samples show cadmium levels higher than otherwise allowed." - from the August 30th Gary Post-Tribune
- "Meeting set on closure of waste acid lagoons" - from the Sept. 1st Gary Post-Tribune
- "Waste lagoon ruling close: Public review continues on U.S. Steel plan; state to decide by end of year." - from the Sept. 3rd Gary Post-Tribune
- "Utility denies damaging park with Bailly water" - - from the Sept. 6th Gary Post-Tribune, a lengthy story by Gitte Laasby that begins:
BURNS HARBOR -- Northern Indiana Public Service Co. is in hot water with the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore because of a warm water discharge from the Bailly Generating Station.
The discharge has eroded away 500 feet of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore shoreline along with beach and wildlife habitat over a quarter mile. It also heats up the lake water.
"People go out there and use it as a hot tub in the winter," said Lynda Lancaster, spokeswoman for the National Lakeshore.
NIPSCO, which denies damaging the park, has a permit to discharge treated cooling water from the Bailly station over an easement into Lake Michigan. Until recent years, the discharge flowed north in a straight line.
Now the waist-high stream has grown more than 200 feet wide and meanders more than a quarter of a mile northeast onto Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore property.
Along the way, it has eroded the dunes, which have turned into cliffs up to 8 feet tall.
"The ... lack of attention to this matter has turned what was once a sandy beach within the national lakeshore into an industrial effluent outflow site," wrote Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Superintendent Constantine Dillon in a pointed letter to NIPSCO on March 12.
"This constitutes a loss of habitat for wildlife, destruction of sandy beach for visitor use, and the unauthorized conversion of federal property from public use to use by private industry," Dillon wrote.
- "Coal group's opposition to climate-change bill sparks Duke's departure" - a Sept. 8th story by Robert Annis that begins:
In July, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity found itself in hot water when its lobbying firm, Bonner and Associates, was caught forging letters from Virginia minority groups to Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., urging him to oppose the American Clean Energy and Security Act.
AdvertisementThe coalition later denied knowing about the forgeries until after the fact, but Duke Indiana spokesman Lew Middleton said last week the actions of some members of the coalition weren't consistent with Duke's efforts to "pass economy-wide, cost-effective legislation as soon as possible."
- "Judge rules site's former owners must pay cleanup costs" - a Sept. 8th story by Jon Murray. Some quotes:
A bright blue structure behind a fence along an industrial stretch of Dr. Andrew J. Brown Avenue doesn't look like much more than a hulking box.
But neighbors light up at mention of the year-old building because they remember the ugly sight -- and the pungent smell -- it replaced. Three years ago, an abandoned, decaying brick foundry and the deeply contaminated soil beneath prompted picketing along the street and a cleanup effort by the city. * * *
Now the city's fight has moved into the courts, and a recent ruling by a Marion County judge has bolstered its efforts to force the property's former owner, Ertel Manufacturing Corp. -- through its insurers -- to pay for millions in cleanup costs.
Ertel's buildings once stood in the middle of a clutch of industrial businesses and churches in the working-class neighborhood northeast of Downtown Indianapolis. * * *
When the city took over the site, old insurance documents found inside provided a legal avenue to seek collection of an estimated $5 million in assessment and cleanup costs. In a key ruling Aug. 20, Judge Michael Keele found Ertel liable under Indiana's environmental legal action statute; he has not yet assessed costs. * * *
[Jon] Mayes, the city attorney, said the city plans to ask Keele's court to consider the costs of further monitoring in the area as part of Ertel's liability. He said the city wants to earn "a clean bill of health" from state and federal environmental regulators.
- "Pork farmer pays for Randolph County fish kill" - Seth Slabaugh reports in the Muncie Star-Press in a story that begins:
UNION CITY -- A pork producer whose manure killed nearly 50,000 fish in the Little Mississinewa River has agreed to reimburse the Indiana Department of Natural Resources $13,696.
Rick Kremer, Ansonia, Ohio, also agreed to pay the Indiana Department of Environmental Management a civil penalty of $2,800 and to complete three supplemental environmental projects estimated to cost $83,344.
State conservation officers observed dead fish over an eight-mile length of the river in August 2008 after Kremer land applied manure when soil and weather conditions were unsuitable.
A scientifically sound and court-defensible statistical formula was used to estimate that 46,962 fish were killed, said Phil Bloom, spokesman for the DNR. Species included bass, bluegill, carp, catfish, creek chub, darters, minnows, stonerollers and suckers.
Damages were determined using American Fisheries Society guidelines that calculate the average cost for a hatchery to raise a fish of the same species to the same size.
"All fish have a value," Bloom said. "The larger the fish, the more it's worth."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 8, 2009 08:53 AM
Posted to Environment