| August
1, 2007
Dumping Easterly
The
Toxic Career of Indiana's Environmental Commissioner
By THOMAS
P. HEALY
Indiana’s
“Dump Easterly” movement may not be a formal organization,
but a growing number of Hoosiers throughout the state are agitating
for a change at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management
(IDEM).
Participants at the July 28 Hoosier Environmental Council Northwest
Region Community Forum in Chesterton passed a resolution calling
on the HEC board of directors to demand the resignation of IDEM’s
commissioner, Thomas Easterly, “so that IDEM can resume its
mission of environmental stewardship for the state of Indiana.”
Indiana
made national news after IDEM granted a National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System (NPDES) permit to BP’s Whiting refinery
that would allow the plant to discharge 1,584 pounds of ammonia
and 4,925 pounds of suspended solids daily into Lake Michigan. The
reported that the permit also allows BP to continue adding 2 pounds
of the potent neurotoxin mercury to Lake Michigan until 2012.
The
U.S. House of Representatives passed a bipartisan resolution, 387-26,
to condemn the widely criticized permit. Easterly and his boss,
Gov. Mitch Daniels, assert that the permit is within federal and
state guidelines and will not be rescinded. Meanwhile, in response
to public outcry, including a threatened boycott, BP has voluntarily
agreed to halt implementation of its permit until Sept. 1, while
it examines “feasible alternatives.”
BP,
the London-based multinational oil and energy conglomerate formerly
known as British Petroleum, plans a $3.8 billion expansion of its
117-year-old refinery on the shores of Lake Michigan in order to
process heavier Canadian crude oil from tar sand. Easterly maintains
IDEM granted the permit because BP could create up to 80 permanent
jobs and nearly 2,000 construction jobs.
Many
Hoosiers say it’s the most recent example of how IDEM puts
the financial health and well-being of polluters ahead of the public
interest, and that it’s time for Easterly to go.
“I
think it’s clear that Thomas Easterly is promoting the agency’s
agenda of economic development at the expense of the environment,”
said Carolyn Marsh, of Whiting, who helped draft the language of
the HEC resolution. “That’s an abrogation of his responsibility
to the public.”
Marsh
said the Clean Water Act makes it clear that no additional pollution
be added to the nation’s waterways. “It is a colossal
environmental catastrophe in the making,” she said. “They’re
creating a dead zone up here.”
BP
claims there is insufficient space to increase the size of its wastewater
treatment facility, and so it requested permission to mix the pollutants
with clean lake water 200 feet offshore. “If there’s
no room for it, why is IDEM permitting it?” Marsh asked.
Marsh
questioned the economic development rationale, citing a City of
Whiting statement about the BP plant that reads in part, “[T]he
City’s immediate benefit is minimal (the portion of the expansion
in Whiting will be virtually all property tax-exempt …).”
“Anybody
looking at what industry has planned for the next decade for this
area will come to the conclusion there won’t be any clean
air, clean water or green space left,” Marsh said.
The
public as the enemy
While
the BP permit fiasco has catalyzed calls for Easterly’s ouster,
outrage over the IDEM chief’s pro-business, anti-public health
positions has been steadily increasing since he assumed his duties
in January 2005.
John
Blair, president of the environmental protection group Valley Watch,
has been battling pollution in southwest Indiana for three decades.
“Gov. Daniels and Thomas Easterly are doggedly pursuing an
agenda of neither environmental protection nor environmental management,”
Blair said recently from his Evansville office.
“It’s
real clear to me that IDEM has undergone numerous attitudinal changes
under Daniels and Easterly,” he said. “Decisions seem
to be made that clearly ignore the will of the public and the spirit
of environmental protection.”
Blair met with Easterly and Assistant Commissioner Scott Nally early
in 2005. “I asked Scott what he saw in his crystal ball for
the future and he said ‘CAFOs and power plants,’”
Blair said, calling the response “morbidly honest.”
“Time
and again Easterly says that IDEM is an economic development tool
for the state,” Blair noted. And while IDEM was founded on
the notion that a healthy economy is compatible with a healthy environment,
Blair takes issue with claims that power plants fit the concept.
“Power plants are the antithesis of economic development.
For IDEM to have that as an agenda is plain flat wrong!”
That
didn’t stop Easterly in 2005 from promoting the Tondu coal
gasification power plant proposed for Carlisle, in northern Indiana.
Easterly testified in support of the project, which was withdrawn
due to widespread public opposition.
Blair
noted that Easterly also testified to IDEM’s Air Pollution
Control Board last October in opposition to a proposal by the Hoosier
Environmental Council to require coal-fired power plants to adopt
technology that would reduce mercury pollution by 90 percent. “HEC’s
petition wasn’t ever really on the table. It was whatever
industry said they were going to do,” Blair said, adding,
“We have a situation where it doesn’t matter what people
think or how much evidence they have to the contrary. Industry gets
its way.”
Blair
charges IDEM with seeking ways to avoid enforcing regulations and
to allow firms to modify permits rather than apply for new ones,
which might require public hearings.
“The
Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corporation told IDEM they wanted to change
from a Class 1 permit to a Class 3 permit for handling waste at
its Clifty Creek power plant. IDEM encouraged them instead to modify
their Class 1 permit rather than apply for a new permit,”
he said.
Blair
also faults IDEM for allowing Consolidated Grain and Barge’s
Mount Vernon plant to modify its permit to allow the firm to use
tires and pallets for fuel. “This encouragement to go to waste
tires really concerns me because it takes a minimalist approach
to air quality,” he said.
“We
know that most tires contain some amount of chlorine and that when
burned, chlorine in the presence of hydrocarbons creates both dioxin
and furan, which are persistent organic pollutants,” Blair
said. “Burning tires also creates a large stream of carbon
monoxide waste that should not be allowed to escape into the atmosphere
to injure humans downwind.”
He
added bitterly that IDEM approved Consolidated Grain and Barge’s
request without requiring any pollution controls or safe disposal
of the toxic ash.
Easterly’s
interest in waste tires was highlighted late last year when, in
an unprecedented move, IDEM sought to alter the definition of what
constitutes recycling by including incineration — specifically
waste-to-energy projects that utilized waste tires. Although a legislative
initiative in the Indiana General Assembly failed, IDEM continues
to study the possibilities.
“I’ve
come to the conclusion that Easterly sees the public as an enemy
instead of a stakeholder,” Blair said. “The only stakeholders
he sees are the people who want to pollute and are seeking permission
to do so.”
All
CAFOs all the time
Gov.
Daniels’ economic development plan for the state includes
doubling pork production; a project Easterly has embraced by resisting
increased regulation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).
“Most
people assume that the head of IDEM would think his job is to protect
the environment,” said Bill Hayden, who chairs the executive
committee of the Indiana Chapter of the Sierra Club. “But
he thinks his job is to do economic development.”
Glenn
Pratt, vice chair of the chapter’s executive committee, thinks
that it’s improper for the commissioner of IDEM to lobby for
factory farming. “He’s supposed to be a nonpartisan,
impartial judge, but he’s going out and promoting them,”
Pratt said.
Last
year, the Indiana Chapter released a report, about IDEM’s
Water Pollution Control Board’s suspension of NPDES permit
compliance deadlines for three years.
At
the time, Shondra Zaborowski, chair of the club’s conservation
committee, told that the Board’s suspension of the permit
compliance deadlines occurred at a critical stage as nearly 300
Indiana CAFOs with NPDES permits were in the process of establishing
and implementing Soil Conservation Practice Plans (SCPP).
“SCPPs
are grounded on sound agricultural practices generally recognized
as prudent and practical,” Zaborowski said. “‘Promises
Broken’ states: ‘An SCPP consists of five mandatory
and three optional elements that include a map of the soil where
manure would be applied, a description of the soil, the slope of
land at application sites, identification of practices to reduce
erosion and control runoff, and identification of methods to minimize
nutrient leaching.’
The
suspension came at a time when CAFOs were beginning to implement
Soil Conservation Practice Plans (SCPP) detailing where manure would
be applied, descriptions of the soil, slope of the land, strategies
to reduce erosion and techniques to minimize nutrient leaching.”
Easterly
and other CAFO proponents claim CAFOs are highly regulated, but
the suspension of the compliance deadlines leads people like Bob
Hedges to question IDEM’s commitment to water quality.
A
retired Fort Wayne banker, Hedges moved with his wife to LaGrange
County, hoping to spend his golden years in the home they built
on one of the county’s many lakes. When a CAFO was proposed
for a neighboring farm, he got involved with Hoosiers for Sustainable
Agriculture and now serves as the group’s president.
“Our
group isn’t just opposing CAFOs but is also promoting healthy
alternatives, ” Hedges said. “With all the recent incidents
of food contamination, people are looking to organic foods they
can buy locally. Our group wants to support and identify those folks
in our county who use organic and sustainable traditional agricultural
practices,” he said.
He
noted that the Great American Prairie begins in LaGrange County
and that it is dotted with wetlands, lakes, fens and major wildlife
habitats such as the Pigeon River Fish and Wildlife Area. “Our
concern about CAFOs is about groundwater pollution,” Hedges
said. He added that LaGrange County is like a large sand dune. “It
has light soil — it’s called a recharge area —
so water doesn’t run off, it runs down into the ground.”
In
other counties, hydrologists measure water flows in inches per hour.
In LaGrange County, Hedges said, it’s measured in feet per
hour. “Somebody wanted to put a CAFO right in the middle of
an area that runs right into the aquifer that’s the source
of our drinking water.”
Another
proposed CAFO was situated 500 feet from the largest wetland in
the area and backs up to the Pigeon River Fish and Wildlife Area.
Hedges said his group submitted scientific data to IDEM to back
up their concerns about groundwater pollution but were ignored.
“They
used to have public hearings but they couldn’t control those,
so now they call them public information meetings,” Hedges
said. “You can’t speak and you have to submit your questions
in advance. They enforce a time limit and answer whatever they can
in that time limit.”
Hedges
said his group had 30 specific questions relating to hydrology for
IDEM. “They have a hydrologist on staff but when they got
to the hydrology questions, they said, ‘He’s not here,
we’ll answer them later.” Hedges said the group received
the hydrologist’s responses after the permit was issued.
One
CAFO applicant used a “fictitious entity” — a
company not registered with the Secretary of State to do business
in Indiana — when filling out IDEM’s permit form. Asked
what a bank would think if an applicant for a loan attempted such
a stunt, Hedges replied, “We would think they were a crook.”
He
said Hoosiers for Sustainable Agriculture is disgusted with IDEM
and has sent the department a notice of intent to sue to strip the
agency of its authority to enforce the Clean Waters Act. “We
don’t think they do anything, so since IDEM doesn’t
regulate CAFOs, it’s up to the citizens to do it themselves.”
Public
hearings: window dressing
Sharon
Carnes and her Michigan City neighbors have tried to convince IDEM
to deny a permit for a proposed garbage transfer station that would
be a half-mile away from Mount Baldy on the Indiana Dunes National
Lakeshore — one of the most environmentally significant landscapes
in the world.
A
garbage transfer station is a place where trucks like the ones used
for curbside pickup in cities dump their contents into an area for
compaction. The compacted trash is then reloaded onto semitractor
trailers for over-the-road hauling to another site.
Carnes
said the county road to the proposed site had been once been considered
as an alternative entrance to the Indiana Dunes National Park but
the project was shelved when an impact study declared the route
to be an environmentally sensitive area.
Nevertheless,
the permit applicant cited that county road as the access road for
the garbage transfer station, and IDEM held a public hearing. “We
gave a PowerPoint presentation showing evidence why this is not
a good site,” Carnes said. She and her neighbors thought they
had made compelling arguments. IDEM granted the permit.
“The
community was outraged,” Carnes said, noting that 300 people
had shown up on a weeknight to testify against it. “They felt
ripped off. The whole process seemed designed to give the illusion
of public input but IDEM disregarded every one of our arguments.”
Taking
their arguments to IDEM’s Office of Environmental Adjudication
(OEA) proved futile as well. “It’s strange,” Carnes
said. “One of IDEM’s rules states that the applicant
has to show access, and we pointed out that the applicant didn’t
have a valid driveway permit.”
She
said IDEM replied, in essence, that they can’t check everything.
“But we gave testimony at the hearing,” Carnes said.
She
quoted from the OEA’s judgment: “Public policy is not
served by requiring IDEM to review every issued permit prior to
receiving notice that a facility intends to commence operation.”
“Public
hearings are all window dressing,” Carnes said. She says IDEM’s
quality initiatives still include improving issuance of permits.
“They want to make it easier for business to work through
the permitting process, but what about protecting the environment?”
Reluctant enforcer
IDEM’s
Easterly told the State Chamber of Commerce in early 2005 that he
wanted to increase Hoosiers’ personal income by providing
assistance first, enforcement second. He added that he wanted to
have timely resolution of enforcement actions.
But
a recent investigation by Dan Stockman of the found that IDEM’s
Voluntary Remediation Program is “… allowing polluters
to avoid responsibility, delaying cleanup and keeping neighbors
in the dark about contamination.”
Deadlines
are ignored or extended, the story says. “There are no consequences
and no enforcement even when deadlines are blown by months or even
years.”
In
an investigation this spring, the found that BP was fined $8,750
after a spill of 1,000 gallons of untreated wastewater at the Whiting
plant in November 2006. IDEM could have levied fines up to $75,000
a day.
This
action confirms research by the Environmental Integrity Project
(EIP), a nonpartisan, nonprofit group founded by former U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency enforcement attorneys. EIP issued a in March that
suggests IDEM is letting polluters off the hook by collecting fees
30 percent below the minimum level of fines set by the Clean Air
Act.
EIP
Project Director Eric Schaeffer said, “States are shortchanging
either the public health or the pockets of taxpayers by setting
emission fees that are too low to cover the cost of Clean Air Act
enforcement programs.”
Indianapolis
Business Journal reporter Chris O’Malley wrote in a March
27, 2006, story that the $2.03 million in fines IDEM issued in 2005
was the lowest annual assessment since at least 1999.
Time
to go
Thomas
Easterly’s assertion that a strong economy means better environmental
protection doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Another
recent Environmental Integrity Project report found that Indiana’s
coal-fired power plants are among the dirtiest in the country, threatening
not only the health of Hoosiers but of our neighbors in other states
as well.
John
Blair points out that not only power plants are dirty. “AK
Steel in Rockport (Spencer County) puts out more toxic pollutants
from one plant than from all the industries in Cook County, Illinois,
Orange County, California and Los Angeles County, California combined,”
he said.
Blair
noted that Indiana’s Spencer County has 20,526 residents while
Los Angeles and Orange counties and Cook County have a combined
total of more than 18 million residents. “Based on 2004 figures,
that one Indiana plant emits more than 20 million pounds of toxic
chemicals. It’s mind-boggling,” he said.
“It’s
no wonder we’re sick down here,” he continued. “We’re
being inundated with toxic chemicals and IDEM wants to measure chemicals
40 feet in the air instead of on the ground. Their monitoring proposal
doesn’t reflect what we’re breathing.”
Blair
said Easterly has to go. Even though Blair believes the fault lies
with the governor, he things getting rid of Easterly would be worth
it. “It would show the next person that there may be a price
to pay.”
Carolyn
Marsh is more blunt. “Daniels can fire him or he can resign,”
Marsh said. “The point is we have to stand up and say, ‘The
man has to go!’”
Thomas
P. Healy is a journalist in Indianapolis. He can be reached
at thomasphealy@sbcglobal.net
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