IDEM redefines water discharge limits for U.S. Steel's Gary Works

For now, the answer is both.

According to an overall comparison between the company's 1994 permit and the draft permit prepared by IDEM, the company will be allowed to increase its releases of chromium by 56 percent, from a monthly average of 29.8 pounds per day to 48.5 pounds per day.

IDEM and company officials said there is no actual increase, but it appears to be because the discharge is monitored before it undergoes additional treatment rather than when it's released after treatment.

"The measure moved from an external outfall to an internal outfall so the measure is taken at a point when it's more concentrated," said IDEM spokeswoman Sandra Flum. "We see it as more protective to measure it closer to the plant so we can limit it there."

Flum's assumption that the wastewater will undergo additional treatment is a big one, said Kim Ferraro, executive director of the Legal Environmental Aid Foundation of Indiana.

"I don't know if they have (been) increasing treatment. Based on their diagram they gave us, it looks like that's an external outfall," Ferraro said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency objected to IDEM's limit, saying officials couldn't tell whether the company will discharge more chromium to the Grand Calumet River or not.

IDEM's comparison also states U.S. Steel will be allowed to increase its discharges of cyanide by 3.8 percent, from a monthly average of 47.8 pounds per day to 49.3 pounds per day. IDEM said the increase is artificial in the sense that the agency added limits that weren't included in the previous permit, and that limits are still below water quality standards.

"We had total cyanide limited before but when it wasn't being measured at an outfall and we added that outfall, it made the total number get higher," Flum said.

The permit added limits for five pollutants -- silver, nickel, cadmium, copper and a type of chromium -- for which the company had no limit before. IDEM took away limits on fluoride and the cancer-causing benzene.

In the comparison, IDEM also states there are permit reductions in selenium (82 percent), benzo(a)pyrene (78 percent), naphthalene (56 percent), phenols (95 percent), ammonia (27 percent), lead (59 percent) and zinc (15 percent). But Ferraro said the company didn't have a monthly average limit on benzo(a)pyrene and selenium before, which makes it hard to compare.

IDEM officials have previously said there's a reduction in benzene discharges, but the comparison shows the limits on benzene have been eliminated even though the federal Toxics Release Inventory shows the U.S. Steel discharges the pollutant.

"That's the evidence we want. Show us there's no more benzene coming out. Then we can talk," Ferraro said.