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Posted: Sunday, 29 November 2009 8:13AM
Mittal waste draws attention
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BURNS HARBOR, Ind. (STNG) -- Waste piles dumped at ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor are raising eyebrows at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
IDEM, which is processing an application from ArcelorMittal for a landfill, has sent a letter to the company, asking where it has dumped 83,000 tons of steel-making waste intended to be disposed of in a landfill.
IDEM spokeswoman Amy Hartsock said in an e-mail that IDEM requested clarification of where waste is coming from within the steel plant "so inspectors will know which streams have been approved for disposal in the landfill."
The letter mentions 60,000 tons of basic oxygen furnace sludge, 19,000 tons of sinter plant thickener sludge and 4,000 tons of coal, coke and sand. The company has 60 days from receipt of the Oct. 28 letter to respond to IDEM's questions.
The agency has been processing the landfill permit application for about a year and a half, but did not officially raise questions about where the sludge, coal and coke was stored until two months after the Post-Tribune asked questions about massive waste piles dumped directly on the ground at the steel mill for years.
The letter was posted in IDEM's online database Nov. 23 -- eight days after the Post-Tribune published an investigation revealing that one of ArcelorMittal's predecessors, Bethlehem Steel Corp., was dumping waste openly in 1999 while IDEM Commissioner Tom Easterly was in charge of environmental matters at the mill.
One of the waste piles is known by ArcelorMittal representatives and IDEM staff as "Easterly's pile." It spreads across 33 acres in the northeast corner of the company's property about 200 feet from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Lake Michigan.
The company told the Post-Tribune it intends to landfill the pile. IDEM said it is not under that impression.
The company has identified on maps at least two other piles of waste that are dumped or stockpiled for recycling and will go into the landfill, but "Easterly's pile" isn't one of them.
The company has generally explained the types of waste that will go into the landfill (such as secondary wastewater treatment plant sludge and blast furnace filter cake) but not what kind of waste is in "Easterly's pile." The company hasn't submitted a chemical analysis of waste specifically marked as being from that area either.
Under state law, companies are required to submit a chemical analysis of every type of waste it intends to landfill to make sure that the waste is compatible with the other waste going into the landfill and to make sure the landfill will be sufficiently protective of the environment.
The waste has been sitting for years with no environmental controls on the ground at the steel plant as little as one foot above groundwater. Depending on what's in it, it could pose an environmental threat, environmentalists say.
If chemicals in the waste are above hazardous levels or if parts of it were not recycled, the company has been violating environmental laws for years with no repercussions. In that case, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would have jurisdiction and could pursue enforcement.
IDEM is holding a public hearing on ArcelorMittal's landfill permit application Wednesday, Dec. 2, in Portage, when people can make comments and ask questions.
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Sun-Times Media Wire Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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