The following story is an example of the ongoing stuggle that the community and the EPA is having with the governor's IDEM. BP is building an multi billion dollar addition onto the East Chicago oil refinery, which happens to be the oldest refinery in the US. This new addition is to process tar sand oil. Environmental groups around the area and country and many legislators have questions the whole process for permits that BP has gotten. There was little time for public comment and then BP and IDEM conspired to stack the meetings with people in favor of the building of the addition.

IDEM cut short permit process, e-mail suggests
(http://www.post-trib.com/news/1396176,bpmemo.article)

January 25, 2009

By Gitte Laasby

Post-Tribune staff writer

By insisting on processing the permit by June 1, regardless of what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said, IDEM also refused to help the EPA gather evidence that BP violated the law.

That's according to an e-mail obtained by the Post-Tribune.

Project 'dead' by June 1

When IDEM processed BP's permit application last spring, EPA had reason to believe BP had violated the Clean Air Act by emitting too much pollution. EPA said BP also modified a refinery unit before receiving a permit to do so. But EPA needed more evidence to prove it and wanted BP to agree to pay a fine for the violations. So EPA officials asked IDEM to help by not issuing the air permit until BP handed over the documents to EPA.

"They want us to hold up issuance of the permit until BP caves to whatever relief EPA would like(,) recognizing that BP must have the permit before June 1 or the entire project is dead," IDEM Commissioner Thomas Easterly said in an e-mail to Gov. Mitch Daniels' IDEM liaison, David Pippen, on Feb. 26, 2008.

Valparaiso environmental attorney Kim Ferraro wasn't surprised.

"It confirms what we knew; that they were really trying to push this thing through," Ferraro said.

IDEM rejected her request for more time to review BP's 1,351-page permit on behalf of residents, but granted her a 30-day extension to review a 100-page permit for a recycling company in Elkhart.

"When we ask about extensions of time, IDEM's usually pretty quick to say, 'We'll give you more time,' " she said. "It's completely inappropriate that you're trying to cut short a very needed public input into the process because you're trying to make it easy for the permittee."

Neither IDEM nor BP would directly answer who or what gave Easterly the idea that the project would be "dead" if the permit wasn't issued by June 1.

"All parties involved understood that the expiration of the emission credits would require portions of the permit to be re-evaluated," IDEM spokeswoman Amy Hartsock said in an e-mail.

BP received credits for reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide and fine particles at the Whiting refinery in 2003, earlier than required. The credits expire after five years. Using the credits allowed BP to avoid installing more stringent pollution control equipment or shutting down some of the polluting units to further reduce pollution.

BP spokesman Scott Dean wouldn't answer whether BP told IDEM the project would be dead by June 1. He referred to a 2008 company press release.

"If we do not have an air permit this year, some of our credits will expire and we will have to modify our permit application and recalculate the costs and timing of this proposed multibillion dollar, multiyear investment in the Midwest economy," the release stated.

Dean said BP reduced its overall air emissions by 68 percent between 2001 and 2006 and that credits help people get cleaner air sooner.

Hartsock said IDEM did help EPA with enforcement by providing documents EPA requested.

"You presume IDEM didn't want to help," Hartsock said in an e-mail. "IDEM simply wanted to follow case law recognizing long-standing EPA policy keeping permitting separate from enforcement."

Enforcement action

Easterly states in the e-mail that, "EPA's position seems to be that the permit cannot be issued until the enforcement action is resolved."

When authorities settle violations with a company, the agreement often requires the company to use new pollution controls to keep the violations from occurring again. Any such controls would be incorporated into a permit that was issued after the enforcement -- guaranteeing that BP?would emit less air pollution.

Ann Alexander, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said if BP started construction early on a project that would increase emissions over a certain threshold, BP would need "far more stringent" pollution controls than IDEM's permit required.

"It would mean cleaner air in the region," she said. "They want to make sure if someone is doing a large expansion project that is, in fact, going to increase emissions, that companies have to face up to that and put in the controls necessary to make sure the community doesn't end up paying the environmental cost of the expansion."

To force IDEM's cooperation, EPA gave IDEM an ultimatum: Hold the public comment period on the air permit open until BP and EPA settle the enforcement case, or EPA will make negative public comments on the draft permit. But EPA backed off just a month later.

IDEM said EPA's request that permitting and enforcement be resolved simultaneously was only the opinion of one person -- Cheryl Newton, the acting director of EPA Region 5's air division.

" 'EPA' did not give IDEM advice; a single person, referenced in your question, suggested action which would have been a change in long-established EPA policy and reinforced by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals," Hartsock said in an e-mail. "EPA chose to follow its policy and the law and supplied IDEM with a letter confirming their approval of the permit."

EPA?would not comment. Spokeswoman Phillippa Cannon said EPA's two official comment letters on the BP permit summarize EPA's position on the overall permitting process and EPA's interactions with the state.

Change in EPA direction

Just one month after EPA?threatened to make negative comments on the permit, the agency backed off. In its comments, EPA pointed out only minor issues and requested that IDEM later add any details BP and EPA agreed on during enforcement.

NRDC's Alexander said as a result, the permit fails to address problems from the past and is based on "untenable" assumptions about emissions.

"Given that EPA had strong reasons to suspect there was a problem, they should have either gone to great lengths to demonstrate why there wasn't a problem or held off until it was resolved," Alexander said. "I don't think going ahead and issuing the permit without resolving the problem was a good solution."

Jane Jankowski, the governor's spokeswoman, denied that anyone from the governor's office interfered.

"The commissioner sent an e-mail to David Pippen, the governor's office liaison to IDEM," she said in an e-mail. "The governor's office took no action."

Contact Gitte Laasby at 648-2183 or glaasby@post-trib.com.

EPA again hits IDEM

EPA again hits IDEM
(http://www.post-trib.com/news/1395184,haze.article)

January 24, 2009

By Gitte Laasby

Post-Tribune staff writer

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has still not submitted its plan to reduce regional haze in the country's national parks. The plan was due more than a year ago.

If IDEM?doesn't submit its plan within the next year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will have to formulate the plan instead. For now, EPA?is threatening to put Indiana on official notice in the Federal Register.

The EPA's?Regional Haze Rule from 1999 aims to improve visibility in 156 national parks and wilderness areas, such as the Grand Canyon and Yosemite. The rule requires states to develop and implement air quality protection plans to reduce the pollution that causes the haze.

Indiana isn't close to any of the parks EPA is concerned about, but IDEM?spokesman Rob Elstro said emissions from Indiana are transported there.

The EPA sent a letter to IDEM on Jan. 14, saying IDEM has not formally completed the public comment process for its plan or submitted limits on the best available technology that the most polluting facilities can install to control emissions.

"The letter we received wasn't unexpected. Indiana is one of 37 other states that are also in that situation. We are working with EPA?to submit the plan fully," Elstro said.

Part of the delay is that the plan involves making rules to flesh out details of the law.

See IDEM's plan at www.in.gov/idem/5795.htm

Read more about regional haze on IDEM's Web site at www.in.gov/idem/4499.htm

 

IDEM comes under attack by Evansville officials

IDEM comes under attack
(http://www.post-trib.com/news/1393375,idemletterfolo.article)

January 23, 2009

By Gitte Laasby

Post-Tribune staff writer

City officials in Evansville share outrage from Hammond and Gary over changes in enforcement at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

They call the changes "absurd" and criticize IDEM's management for "emasculating" the agency. City officials are now taking their frustration to the Indiana General Assembly, where Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. has been asked to testify to a state House committee.

Several bills also are in the works and the EPA has sent a letter with concerns to IDEM.

"We had very little expectation anything we said or did to communicate with (IDEM Commissioner Thomas) Easterly or Gov. (Mitch) Daniels would matter," said Dona Bergman, director of Evansville's Environmental Protection Agency.

"Frankly, I think U.S. EPA, from that letter, is quite concerned. I?don't think IDEM bothered to consult with EPA?before they made these decisions. EPA staff we have spoken to were quite shocked."

Three changes are causing concern: IDEM's decision to eliminate funding for city agencies that monitor air, including those in Gary, Hammond and Evansville; a new enforcement policy that would narrow the category of environmental permit violations to comprise only violations that cause actual harm to human health or the environment; and the elimination of IDEM's Office of Enforcement.

Bergman said Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel talked to Daniels, and that Evansville EPA?staff contacted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5.

As the Post-Tribune reported Thursday, the regional office of the EPA sent a letter to IDEM Tuesday raising questions about the changes.

McDermott welcomed the intervention. He and a Hammond environmental manager were asked to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee in early February, "probably to answer questions about this whole situation," McDermott said.

"Maybe this has something to do with the change in administration in Washington. I welcome EPA's involvement."

IDEM officials announced in December that IDEM was canceling city contracts to monitor air, saying it would enhance efficiency and that the agency would save $2 million by doing it in-house.

Bergman called it "absolutely absurd" and "dis-ingenuous" to claim IDEM would be as effective and efficient as local agencies.

She questioned the savings, citing top IDEM officials who said IDEM would need to hire at least four people to take over the responsibilities. Evansville legislators have asked IDEM for a fiscal analysis of where the savings would be, but IDEM has not provided answers, she said.

"I am not going to stand there and say this is going to enhance efficiency. None of that is true," Bergman said.

Hammond, Gary and Evansville officials have expressed concern that IDEM will be less responsive to complaints of residents and perform inspections less frequently.

"For the larger sources," such as U.S. Steel, BP and NIPSCO, "the ones that IDEM staff will have resources to inspect, 70 percent of those will get done only every two years. Thirty percent will be done every three years," Bergman said. "Local agencies did all those and a whole lot more every year."

Bergman is not optimistic that bills requiring IDEM to enter local contracts will go anywhere, but hopes EPA and public awareness will help.

"There are obviously people at (EPA) Region 5 who are concerned," she said. "I think there are a number of mid- and low-level IDEM personnel who want to do a good job, who really care about the environment and protecting the environment. They're very distraught by the system ... and now a management team that seems bent on emasculating the entire agency."

"For the larger sources," such as U.S. Steel, BP and NIPSCO, "the ones that IDEM staff will have resources to inspect, 70 percent of those will get done only every two years. Thirty percent will be done every three years," Bergman said. "Local agencies did all those and a whole lot more every year."

She's not optimistic that bills requiring IDEM to enter local contracts will go anywhere, but hopes EPA and public awareness will help.

"There are obviously people at (EPA) Region 5 who are concerned," she said. "I think there are a number of mid- and low-level IDEM personnel who want to do a good job, who really care about the environment and protecting the environment. They're very distraught by the system... and now a management team that seems bent on emasculating the entire agency."

Contact Gitte Laasby at 648-2183 or glaasby@post-trib.com.

 

Post-Tribune Jan. 14 addition: "Environmental, citizens groups upset with Daniels"

"Environmental, citizens groups upset with Daniels"
By Gitte Laasby
A coalition of environmental and citizen action groups are getting fed up with Gov. Mitch Daniels' lack of response to their public information requests.
The groups requested information two and a half months ago but have not received any documents.
http://www.post-trib.com/business/1375985,dukedoc.article

Two Environmental stories on Indiana

Bill would keep pollution laws at fed levels
(http://www.post-trib.com/news/1372044,envboard.article)

January 11, 2009

By Gitte Laasby

Post-Tribune staff writer

A new bill would make it nearly impossible for Indiana to implement stricter environmental laws than required by the federal government -- unless it's an emergency and business representatives approve.

Environmentalists are taken aback, saying such a law would prohibit the state from being on the forefront environmentally.

"That's exactly right," said state Rep. Phyllis Pond, R-New Haven, about the bill. "Unless there's some situation that really needs it, then we don't need to make a rule. I meant to make it very difficult to them to make rules more strict than EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.) If we really need it, EPA would have it."

States are required to adopt rules that are as strict as federal laws, but can choose to go further. Miller environmentalist Lee Botts was hoping Indiana would take stronger action on some issues where the federal government has been slow to act. That couldn't happen if the General Assembly passes the new bill, Senate Bill 79, authored by Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn.

"It's a new effort to make sure Indiana doesn't get out front," said Botts, who's a member of the Water Pollution Control Board. "They don't want Indiana to do more than they have to."

Kruse referred all questions to Pond.

The bill would establish an environmental rule review board, which would prevent existing air, water and solid waste pollution control boards from adopting state environmental regulations that are stricter than federal laws unless it's an emergency and the new board approves.

The board would consist of seven members. The three voting members would be the Indiana Department of Environmental Management commissioner or his designee and two businessmen appointed by the governor. Four legislators would be non-voting members.

"It's part of an ongoing (effort) in Indiana ... to define the interest of the state in terms of certain economic interests," Botts said. "The only purpose would be if you're seeking to put a certain perspective on the rules."

Pond said the purpose of the bill would be to protect small business people. She said IDEM wanted cabinet and furniture makers to have environmental permits because they use finishing products, such as shellac, that release volatile compounds that contribute to air pollution. She said IDEM didn't provide scientific evidence to back up its demand.

"If EPA?doesn't think it's an issue, that it's causing air pollution, we don't need the rule in Indiana," Pond said. "If they make a rule, they should have scientific data to back up the rule. They can't just make up a rule without reliable information."

She said in hard economic times, a new rule from IDEM could be the straw that breaks the camel's back for small businesses.

Asked why no citizen, municipal or environmental members would be represented on the board, Pond said she'd be willing to enlarge the board, but that larger boards have a harder time getting things done. She suggested the existing three boards be combined into one.

Kay Nelson, director of environmental affairs with the Northwest Indiana Forum, said the stringency of a state's environmental rules affects businesses' ability to compete globally.

Contact Gitte Laasby at 648-2183 or glaasby@post-trib.com.

Comment on this story at www.post-trib.com.

IDEM attorney now working in file room
(http://www.post-trib.com/news/1372043,idemkeene.article)

January 11, 2009

By Gitte Laasby

Post-Tribune staff writer

The top legal manager at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management has been moved to the agency's file room.

Robert Keene had been the assistant commissioner of the Office of Legal Counsel for a couple of years until a month ago. He is now listed on IDEM's Web site as "attorney." He works out of the file room, where he responds to public information requests.

"I made a change here at IDEM," Keene confirmed. "There is nothing else I can comment about it, really."

He referred other questions to IDEM's communications office.

Keene has been with state government roughly 10 years, IDEM spokeswoman Amy Hartsock said. She called the move "lateral."

"Bob is helping on records requests, including requests you have submitted," Hartsock said in an e-mail. "The change, which happened about one month ago, was made so that we can respond better to public records requests. The change was based on agency needs and did not involve a pay cut. We will be working to fill the assistant commissioner position."

State records show employees with Keene's classification get paid $60,000 to $109,000 a year.

Keene gained statewide media attention two weeks before his move when he refused to release calendar items to the Post-Tribune that show when top IDEM officials met with BP officials on BP's air permit.

Keene said the records are exempt from disclosure because they are attorney-client privilege or deliberative communications -- both justifications that Hoosier State Press Association attorney Stephen Key said are not legitimate. IDEM later provided another explanation for withholding the records; that calendars are exempt because they are the equivalent of a diary or journal. The Post-Tribune has still not received the records.

Contact Gitte Laasby at 648-2183 or glaasby@post-trib.com.

Comment on this story at www.post-trib.com.

 

Report: Tar sands threaten birds

A January 5, 2009 article by Gitte Laasby of the Post-Tribune reports on the local environmental impact of tar sands extraction and refining in Canada.

Up to 166 million of the birds we see in our back yards could disappear as a result of extraction and refining of oil from Canadian tar sands, according to a new report.

BP is expanding its Whiting refinery to be able to increase its use of tar sands.

Dark-eyed juncos, white-throated sparrows, horned grebes and short-billed dowitchers are just some of the birds on a long list of species that are in decline and whose summer habitat could be in danger, states the report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Boreal Songbird Initiative and the Pembina Institute.

As global warming and other trends show, the environmental impact of human activity on other species, and ultimately on human life, is immense. The idea that we can continue to act in our economic and social decisions as if those actions have no long term consequences is increasingly threatening our own ability to meet our human needs, and is immediately devestating to species that act as a forewarning to us of the ultimate impact on our own species should we not change our ways.

"At a time when bird populations are rapidly declining, this report puts into perspective the far-reaching effects of tar sands oil development on North America's birds," said the report's lead author, Jeff Wells, a scientist with the Boreal Songbird Initiative. "The public needs to understand the real and long-term ecological costs of this development and determine if this is acceptable."

Half of America's migratory birds nest in the Boreal forest in Canada, but tar sands mining and drilling cause habitat loss. Each year, 22 million to 170 million birds breed in a 35 million-acre area that could eventually be developed for tar sands oil. Anywhere between 6 million and 166 million birds could be lost over the next 30 to 50 years, the report states.

"Some people don't think much about where their oil and gas comes from," Wells said. "You always expect there to be a junco in your back yard in the winter, but you don't think about where they're coming from. What impact it could have as they're drawing gas in. They're also drawing down the birds from that region."

Between 8,000 to 100,000 birds die every year after they land or drown in the oily water in tailing ponds, and that number could double or triple as a result of mining expansions, the report states.

Environmental protection, like so much else in our modern society, must be viewed from a global perspective. The productive forces that humanity has developed over the years are such that it is invalid to assume a localized impact of that activity. In much the same way that global capital drifts around the world seeking the highest profit no matter what the devestation in lost jobs and broken lives for the people in areas away from which capital has drifted, so the environmental impact of activity in one region has a huge impact on many other regions.

Increasing tar sands refining and pipeline infrastructure also delivers pollution to the Great Lakes.

"The resulting decrease in air and water quality affects migratory birds, which will suffer elevated mortality numbers as a result of contaminants and toxins from refining," the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a statement.

Birds are an indicator of the health of the environment for humans, too, Wells said.

Refining Canadian crude causes up to three times more greenhouse gas emissions than regular refining, and birds are also impacted by global warming, the report states.

As President-elect Barack Obama said in Portsmouth, NH on October 8, 2007:

“We cannot afford more of the same timid politics when the future of our planet is at stake. Global warming is not a someday problem, it is now. We are already breaking records with the intensity of our storms, the number of forest fires, the periods of drought. By 2050 famine could force more than 250 million from their homes . . . . The polar ice caps are now melting faster than science had ever predicted. . . . This is not the future I want for my daughters. It's not the future any of us want for our children. And if we act now and we act boldly, it doesn't have to be.”

McDermott Calls for Daniels' Ouster over Little Cal Funding

The Post-Tribune reports in an article by John Byrneon (January 9, 2009 11:34 AM) that:

Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. told listeners on his WJOB radio show Friday that Gov. Mitch Daniels should get bounced from the Statehouse if the Little Calumet River levee project doesn't get funded by the legislature this year.

The levee is designed to protect Highland and other areas from flooding. Right now Highland residents have to pay for flood insurance on their homes due to being listed by the Army Corps of Engineers as living in a flood plain. Once the levee is completed the Army Corps of Engineers can be petitioned to remove the determination that Highland is in a flood plain, and if accepted residents will no longer have to pay extra for flood insurance.

According to the The Times (nwi.com) in an article by Charles F. Haber on February 27, 2006:

The overall project involves rebuilding the levee along both banks from I-65 to the Illinois border. After starting at I-65 a number of years ago, the work has been completed through Gary up to Cline Avenue.

The Times article continued:

When a significant portion of the project is done, the Army Corps will be petitioned to revise the flood map, Wszolek said. When this happens, about 2,500 properties on the north end of Highland are expected to become eligible to pull the plug on their flood insurance, he said.

In the past, Gardner [executive director of the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission] has said the entire town must be protected by the new levee before even one home can be removed from the flood plain designation.

The Highland stretch of the project will run in three phases: from Cline Avenue to Liable Road, from Liable to Kennedy Avenue, and from Kennedy to the Norfolk & Southern Railroad tracks. Officials have said the three phases may not necessarily be performed in that same sequence.

The Post-Tribune article continued:

McDermott was quick to say he called for Daniels' impeachment in jest.

"It's not like we're seeking to have him removed from office," McDermott said.

But McDermott did say the General Assembly must find adequate funding to complete the Little Calumet levee project this spring.

Daniels' proposed two-year budget includes just $2 million for the levees, far below the $13 million estimated tab to complete the work.

"If they can't find the funding by the end of the session, they've lost all credibility with the people of Northwest Indiana, and the governor, for failure to take a leadership position on that issue, should be impeached," McDermott said.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Daniels called the cost of the levees "a moving target," but said he hopes the legislature can find the cash to complete the work.

"I hope we'll finally get a number that's reliable and a plan for finishing it. It's a very important project, as we saw, regrettably, again this summer," Daniels said.

Protect our environment, even in not-so-good times

The Indianapolis Star today published an editorial entitled Protect our environment, even in not-so-good times. Their position:

State must not let current budget crisis hurt environmental protection.

The contradiction between profits and human needs in our society is crippling. Capitalism is unable to meet basic human needs including the protection of the environment, housing, education, and health care. The current fiscal crisis is highlighting the commitment to profits over people in every aspect of our society. While more than a trillion dollars has already dissappeared into the coffers of the finance wizards of Wall Street who were the first in line for help, the State of Indiana is not providing for jobs, health care, or environmental protection.

As the Indianapolis Star reports:

One of the unfortunate victims of the national recession may be Indiana's environment.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management, citing a budget shortfall caused by the economic downturn, has cut off $3 million in funds for recycling and pollution prevention programs. The freeze in funding will persist for at least 18 months.

Among the programs that will be hit are those that remove hazardous household materials and old tires from the waste stream.

The loss of funding is especially troubling given Indiana's long-standing environmental problems, including poor air and water quality.

The move also comes in the wake of two other controversial changes that have understandably upset environmentalists.

IDEM last month announced it was abolishing its Office of Enforcement. Although the agency contends that shifting the office's personnel to other departments will improve collaboration and customer service, the move sends an unintended message: that the state will be less diligent in the future about targeting polluters.

The state also wants to redefine what constitutes a serious environmental violation. The proposed policy would require actual harm or a significant threat to human health or the environment before violators would face penalties. The state's top environmentalists worry that the definition, if adopted, would weaken existing protections.

Added together, all of these measures send a signal that Indiana is moving backward on environmental protection at a time when the public is more eager than ever for government to safeguard the land, air and water.

With the General Assembly preparing to convene and the governor planning his annual State of the State address, it's a good time to reassess where Indiana stands when it comes to environmental stewardship. Do economic interests trump environmental needs? Must the recession push aside Hoosiers' desire to leave behind a cleaner, more livable state for future generations?

Today's leaders must understand they're guiding a state that has a long history of neglecting its natural resources. That fact makes not only environmental activists but also many other Hoosiers wary when programs are cut and policies altered.

Contact your State Representatives and let them know you support tough environmental protections and ask them to fully fund the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and to protect and expand environment protection in Indiana.