Toxics in IN; 2 Opportunities to Act (US Steel, Duke Energy)

December 13, 2007

JOE MILLER

Thomas Healy has an excellent article entitled "The Toxic State of Indiana" in the Dec. 12 edition of NUVO in Indianapolis. The article documents various ways in which environmental management, monitoring, enforcement, and review are being shorted in Indiana, and the priority that Daniels and the directors of several state agencies are placing on narrowly defined economic development at the expense of long term environmental protection and sustainability. The article covers lots of territory including controversies surrounding the pollution discharge permit recently granted to the BP refinery in Whiting, and controversies regarding recent decisions and proposals related to coal plants, mercury emission levels, burning tires as fuel, promoting and regulating factory farms (aka confined animal feeding operations, CAFOs), building roads through valuable forests and farmland, etc.

Thomas Healy: The Toxic State of Indiana 12/12/07
http://www.nuvo.net/articles/the_toxic_state_of_indiana/

Two ways in which you can oppose the toxification of Indiana are to: (1) join with Save the Dunes and many other organizations and individuals in petitioning the EPA to reduce the levels of toxics that a recent IDEM permit allows US Steel to discharge into the Grand Calumet River and Lake Michigan, and (2) join with the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana and many other organizations and individuals to stop Duke Energy from building a $2.1 billion 630 MW coal gasification (Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle, or IGCC) power plant in Edwardsport, Indiana. Information on each action is pasted below. Comments on the two actions must be submitted by December 28 and December 31, respectively.

There's Still Time to Submit Comments on the US Steel Permit to Pollute Lake Michigan!!

Save the Dunes
http://www.savedunes.org/

Yesterday, Save the Dunes joined over 300 others to address an EPA panel with their opinions about the US Steel Permit issued by IDEM and now being reviewed by EPA.Many raised serious concerns about US Steel's discharges, but others took a shortsighted and misguided view that requiring US Steel to reduce toxin discharges would cause economic ruin for Northwest Indiana. We believe that industry can co-exist with a healthy environment. "The ruin of Northwest Indiana will surely result if IDEM and EPA allow US Steel to continue discharging deadly toxins into Lake Michigan and fail to force the use new, green technology to capture, contain and remove toxins from their waste water", said Save the Dunes President, Deborah Chubb.

Erin Crofton, Resource Specialist for Save the Dunes, used our small-allotted time to express our support of EPA's objections to IDEM's issuance of the NPDES permit for US Steel and urged EPA to:

1. Lower the cyanide discharges year-round to protect Salmonids living in the Grand Calumet River;
2. Demand demonstrations to show why US Steel should be allowed to increase discharges of contaminants into Lake Michigan;
3. Demand that IDEM develop Total Maximum Daily Loads for pollutants that US Steel is dumping into the Lake; and,
4. Require US Steel to decrease the impact of discharging warmed water into the Grand Calumet River

Our new coalition, Lake Michigan Environmental Coalition, was represented by Kim Ferraro who submitted a letter addressing all of EPA's objections to the permit and added further problems that EPA should address. Attorney Ferraro also pointed out to the EPA panel US Steel's history of permit violations for exceeding allowed discharges of toxins.

Visit our website www.savedunes.org to view SDC's comments on the permit and Talking Points that will help you draft your own comments on this very complicated permit.

Comments can be submitted until December 28, 2007 to:

In Writing:

David Soong
EPA Region 5
NPDES Programs Branch (WN-16J)
77 W. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60604

Online to the EPA's website:

www.epa.gov/region5/publiccomment/ussteel-pubcomment.htm

Stop Duke Energy from Building Unnecessary Coal-Fired Power Plants in Indiana!!

Citizen's Action Coalition of Indiana
http://www.citact.org/newsite/
http://www.citact.org/dukeigcc/dukeigcc.htm

At the end of November 2007, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission approved Duke Energy's plans to build a $2.1 billion 630 MW coal gasification (Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle, or IGCC) power plant in Edwardsport, Indiana to replace two old coal-fired power plants built in the 1950's that are only capable of producing 160 MW and only run about 30% of the time. Wall Street will not finance coal-gasification technology since it is too new and commercially unproven. (There are only 4 coal-gasification power plants operating in the entire world.) Therefore, in order to finance the plant, Duke intends to raise electric rates by at least 16 - 20%!

CAC intends to appeal the Commission's decision. We are currently analyzing the Commission's Order to prepare our arguments. In our estimation, the IURC has clearly violated the public trust with this decision.

The next step for Duke is to get approval from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to put more pollutants into the air. While IDEM and Duke have been preparing a draft permit for 16 months, they are only giving the public 45 days to respond. Also, they have conveniently scheduled a public hearing on this matter for Dec. 20th, 5 days before Christmas, when most people are busy with family and holiday engagements. The comment period closes on Dec. 31st, another major holiday which most people choose to celebrate and so will be occupied with other plans. Additionally, IDEM is only accepting written comments by mail, not comments that are made through phone calls or email. Obviously, IDEM does not seriously want the public to participate in this process.

Take Action!

Please write a letter to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management! In your letter, urge IDEM to do the following:

• Extend the public comment period until the end of February 2008
• Reschedule the public hearing, or schedule an additional hearing for sometime in January or February 2008
• Allow for comments to be filed using email and phone calls
• Reject Duke's petition to emit increased toxic air emissions into the air we breathe.
• Also, let them know that Indiana should follow the lead of the Kansas Dept. of Health and the Environment, which rejected the air permits for 2 proposed coal-fired power plants on the basis that carbon dioxide is a health and environmental hazard.

Address your letters to:

Kimberly Cottrell
IDEM, Office of Air Quality
100 North Senate Avenue
MC 61-53, Room 1003
Indianapolis, IN 46204-2251

You can also e-mail Ms. Cottrell at mailto:kcottrel@idem.in.gov

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Joseph Miller
Associate Professor of Psychology
Saint Mary's College
Box 51, Madeleva Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556

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St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN