By The Times of Northwest Indiana Staff and Wire Reports
Illinois politicians, including U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, vowed to fight the proposed U.S. Steel Corp. water discharge permit regarding the Grand Calumet River. They said they fear the state proposal could relax or eliminate limits on toxic chemicals and heavy metals the company dumps into the Lake Michigan tributary.
"It troubles me why month after month we have to worry about the governor of Indiana asking for another permit to pollute this lake," Durbin, a Democrat, said at a news conference. "I wish Gov. (Mitch) Daniels would come up and take a look at this beautiful lake.
"It is not just the backyard and sewage dump for the heavy industries that happen to be in Indiana. It happens to be a great asset for his state, for our state and for many others in the Midwest."
Learning of the senator's statements Friday evening, Gov. Daniels staff issued a reply:
"Governor Daniels will ignore the personal cheap shots hurled at him by Senator Durbin, but it's clear the senator doesn't care if steelworkers lose their jobs or not. It sounds like he'd prefer Northwest Indiana to be a residential colony of Chicago," the Republican governor's office said in an e-mail to The Times.
"Our responsibility is to keep the lake clean and people at work. The permit is a only a draft. The final permit issued by IDEM will be more protective of Lake Michigan than the standards under which US Steel is operating today."
The Save the Dunes Council also weighed in.
"We are encouraged to see EPA raise concerns and objections to the draft permit to US Steel to discharge pollution to the Grand Calumet River and Lake Michigan", said Debra Chubb, president of Save the Dunes Council.
Chubb said Save the Dunes submitted comments on the draft permit and has worked for years to reduce pollution from the steel mill.
The Northwest Indiana Forum "is reviewing the situation and will provide a statement upon completion of that review by early next week," said Karen Lauerman, the Forum's director of communications and marketing.
This is the second time in recent months that Durbin and other Illinois lawmakers got involved in a permit issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. IDEM also took heat over its handling of a pollution permit for BP's Whiting oil refinery, about 10 miles west of U.S. Steel's Gary Works.
BP faced growing public and political outrage over the permit -- including from lawmakers and Chicago officials -- because it allowed the company to boost the volume of pollutants dumped into the lake. The company later said the refinery would stay within the limits set in its previous permit.
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