By Gitte Laasby, Post-Tribune staff writer

GARY -- U.S. Steel Gary Works' draft wastewater permit does not do enough to protect the aquatic life in the Grand Calumet River, and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management has not done enough to address the company's past violations, according to the U.S. Department of Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service.

The agency was among more than 300 entities and individuals who submitted comments on the permit to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA posted all comments on its Web site Thursday. Among the commentors are the City of Chicago, U.S. Steel Corp. and business partners, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, elementary students, the Illinois attorney general, private residents, various environmental groups and legislators.

In a letter, the Fish and Wildlife Service criticized IDEM for allowing too much cyanide to be discharged according to the proposed permit.

The federal agency also urged IDEM to stop U.S. Steel from discharging visible silty materials into the Grand Calumet, saying biologists warned IDEM 20 times in 1993 about the alleged violations of the permit.

"Every time we have visited this outfall site (by land or by boat) over the course of the past 15 years (hundreds of times), visible solids are discharged ... into the Grand Calumet River," Supervisor Scott E. Pruitt wrote in his comments. "These occurrences are violations ... and should be ceased."
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