Midwest Memo
Stewardship
by Alan Shultz

It's a straight shot north from the State Capitol in Indianapolis up to One Broadway Street in Gary. Employees at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) can hop in their government issued cars and take I-65 for the entire 155-mile trip.

From reading the headlines coming out of Chicago these days, I wonder how often the folks at IDEM make that two and a half hour journey.

As far as addresses go, One Broadway Street has a nice ring to it. It sounds like the address for a big bank or a fancy condominium development. When you consult a map, One Broadway Street in Gary looks promising because of its proximity to Lake Michigan and the Indiana Dunes.

But One Broadway Street is not a pretty place. Despite its proximity to sand dunes and the lake, this is a gray spot on a forlorn looking road with signs of poverty, urban blight and neglect all around.

Welcome to the home of U.S. Steel. And while you're here, give a big "Hello" to Gary, Indiana.

The Chicago Tribune broke this story and Hoosier papers have followed with coverage and it can be summed up pretty well with the following headlines:

"Indiana seeks to ease rules for lake polluter"

"EPA: Indiana too easy on U.S. Steel"

"U.S. blocks permit for steel mill."

At issue is a permit issued by IDEM every five years allowing waste discharge into the Lake Michigan basin via the Grand Calumet River. U.S. Steel is the largest polluter of the lake with one million pounds of waste being discharged annually.

It turns out that U.S. Steel in Gary and British Petroleum (BP), down the road in Whiting, have been operating on expired IDEM permits that date back to 1994. That's a long time for permits of such importance to run expired.

We are dealing here with permits over 100 pages long of technical language. The pollutants covered by these permits include grease, chemicals and nasty heavy metals that pose all kinds of risks to the environment and to water quality.

This is real serious stuff.

The folks at IDEM made news a few months ago when they agreed to allow BP in Whiting to increase their discharges into Lake Michigan. That move didn't go over very well with many. The uproar that followed pressured BP into backing away from their request.

So what's going on here? Why does IDEM appear out of step with the trend for more regulation of lake pollution? And why is the outrage about these permits coming from outside the State of Indiana, rather than from within?

Years ago I was invited to an annual meeting of the Carroll County Soil and Water Conservation District. I remember going to the event anticipating that the subject matter was going to be both dry and

foreign to me.

At the meeting there was talk of the benefits of "no till" cultivation and there was discussion of a technique to lessen chemical run off into ditches and creeks. These topics indeed proved to be dry and foreign to me. But the discussion was done in the context of an introduction from my neighbor, Bob Peterson, that has always stuck with me.

Peterson said that farmers were stewards of the land entrusted to them. With stewardship, he said, came an obligation to take care of that land for the benefit of generations to come.

It seemed such a simple observation to carry such importance and consequence.

I realize that IDEM officials are forced to factor in economics and politics into their decision making. Big business and jobs and tax revenue all have a seat at the table where this stuff gets discussed and hashed out.

I want to see at IDEM a sense of stewardship of the land that seems absent from the revelations of this entire regulation process. More importantly, I look to see increased concern and protest from inside Indiana over issues like this - sure to touch generations of Hoosiers to come.