Representing Save the Dunes and its members, the Hoosier Environmental Council has settled a legal challenge with ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management requiring one of the largest steel mills in North America to properly manage, control, monitor and clean up more than 3 million tonnes of toxic steel making waste at its Burns Harbor facility.
The federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and Indiana's solid waste management laws prohibit open dumping of solid waste. Save the Dunes' petition alleged that AMBH and its predecessors open dumped industrial wastes and sludges very near Lake Michigan and the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Long time readers of the ILB may remember a number of stories by Gitte Laasby, then of the Gary Post Tribune, that the ILB quoted and linked to in late 2009. Although they are no longer online at the newspaper, the HEC has pulled those stories together in this document.
Last week, state environmental regulators, the steel mill's owners ArcelorMittal and two environmental groups reached a settlement that will require the mill to remove or recycle the waste and also to test the soil underneath to see if it has been contaminated with toxins.
But if this is a victory for environmentalists, they say the two-year legal fight that preceded it illustrates precisely what is wrong with the state agency tasked with enforcing state and federal environmental laws.
Ms Kim Ferraro, a Valparaiso based attorney representing the Hoosier Environmental Council and Save the Dunes, believes strongly that if the legal challenge had not been filed, IDEM never would have moved to require cleanup. She said that "I feel like I'm doing IDEM's job sometimes."
Various environmental advocacy groups consistently rank Indiana among the worst in the nation for its air and water quality. One reason why, environmentalists contend, is that far too often powerful business interests have been given a free pass to pollute.
The situation at ArcelorMittal, though, is especially galling to some environmentalists. Mr Thomas Easterly, who was appointed by Governor Mr Mitch Daniels to lead IDEM in 2005, previously worked for Bethlehem Steel, the mill's pervious owners.
Agency spokeswoman Ms Amy Hartsock, however, pointed out that this particular pile has been reduced to the point over years that she questions whether it should be described as a pile at all
Ms Hartsock said that dump site dates back to the 1980s, well before Easterly joined what was then Bethlehem Steel in 1994.
Company spokeswoman Ms Mary Beth Holdford said in a two paragraph email that the settlement allows ArcelorMittal to move ahead with the Deerfield Storage Facility, a 75 acre onsite landfill for some of the waste that can't be recycled.
She called it an environmentally beneficial project the company has been pursuing for several years as part of our long term environmental strategy.
Source - Indiana Law Blog
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