Wetlands. Yesterday I reported on a Washington Post story about an new report charging "The administration has allowed developers to drain thousands of acres of wetlands under a policy adopted last year". Today I have a link to the report; access it here.
RCRA. In May the Post ran a story on an EPA rule that allegedly favored a Bush donor. See the ILB entry here. Today the Post has another story, reporting:
Four Democratic members of Congress have requested an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency's writing of a hazardous-waste rule that would benefit industrial laundries, including a company controlled by the family of one of President Bush's top fundraisers.Stormwater. Two stories yesterday on stormwater and smaller Indiana communities. The Linton Daily Citizen reports here the Bloomfield Town Council had received an "early warning notification" from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management "alerting the local officials that the amount of runoff is approaching unsatisfactory levels. The level has not exceeded the treatment plant's capacity, but during heavy storms is putting a strain on it. * * * [Street/Sewer Department head Don Lawless] said the sewer system operator was aware of the problem and would continue to monitor it as requested by IDEM."
Meanwhile, the Bedford Times-Mail had an opinion piece headlined "Mitchell needs to heed IDEM." It begins:
Officials in Mitchell would be wise to heed the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's warning that says the city's wastewater treatment plant is reaching capacity.Waste tires. Terre Haute's Action News 10 has an interesting story about the dangers of a waste tire dump and the costs of cleaning it up.Mitchell Mayor Morris "Butch" Chastain is having trouble accepting the IDEM numbers that say the treatment system operated at 90 percent in 2002, at 101 percent in 2003 and this year, so far, is at 97 percent.
Chastain's skepticism is not unfounded. He said that when he took office in 2000, he had the capacity tested because Spring Mill State Park wanted to hook on, and at the time, capacity was running at 45 to 48 percent. If Spring Mill had hooked on, the numbers would have gone high, Chastain said. But the park didn't go that route and no other major hook-ups were added. Chastain, consequently, said he just can't imagine that the numbers have jumped so dramatically in only four years.
While Chastain has sound reasoning for questioning the numbers, it still is critically important that the city administration pay close attention to what IDEM Deputy Commissioner Timothy Method called an early warning notification. Method said last week in Mitchell, "The early warning notification is intended to alert municipalities to potential problems and provide a period of time to evaluate conditions, plan for possible solutions and arrange funding in the event capital improvements are required."