October 28, 2024
Stronger Permits Mean Cleaner Air for Northwest Indiana
ELPC’s Northwest Indiana Protector Project fights to improve air quality and protect communities
Northwest Indiana has some of the Midwest’s most iconic natural areas and historic communities, alongside some of our largest industrial polluters. As part of our Northwest Indiana Protector Project, ELPC is monitoring these facilities and empowering communities to help hold polluters accountable. In addition to fighting for clean water and protecting natural areas, a big part of this project involves reviewing Clean Air Act permits for Lake and Porter County facilities. We have found some consistent problems with these permits from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, so we are pushing the agency to enforce stronger protections for cleaner air. Here’s what we have found and what ELPC is doing about it.
they do need to be good neighbors and operate as cleanly as possible—and as required by law
It’s important to note that ELPC is not trying to shut these facilities down. We appreciate their place as economic juggernauts in the region, but they do need to be good neighbors and operate as cleanly as possible—and as required by law. These facilities are located amidst dynamic communities—and the health impacts of unregulated and underregulated air pollution on the people who live in this region, as well as the people who work at these facilities—is well documented. Additionally, the emissions from these steel mills affect Indiana Dunes National Park – the 11th most visited and 4th most biodiverse national park in the country – which is now ranked in the Top 10 National Parks with Unhealthy Air and the Top 10 Worst National Parks for Hazy Skies. The Clean Air Act is meant to address these issues, but to do so IDEM as the regulating agency, must ensure that the facilities are complying with the law in the permits that they issue.
What’s an air permit?
An air permit sets limits on each kind of pollution that a facility might emit into the air, in addition to other important operations and safety requirements. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management updates each facility’s air permit every five years and opens a public comment period before the new one gets finalized. This is an important opportunity for Hoosiers to speak up and fight for healthy clean air, but it can be difficult to know how. ELPC closely reviews new permits as they come up, working with Northwestern Indiana organizations and everyday citizens to request that IDEM hold public hearings and/or meetings. ELPC has leveraged our legal expertise to try and elevate the voices of the impacted communities to bring awareness to these hearings and pending permits. For example, see Cleveland-Cliffs Air Quality Permit Renewal Factsheet.
What’s wrong with these permits?
Since January of 2024, IDEM has published several air permits for Northwest Indiana facilities, including three steel mills: Cleveland-Cliffs Burns Harbor, Cleveland-Cliffs Steel in Indiana Harbor, and US Steel Gary Works, as well as the BP Whiting oil refinery. Through our thorough legal review, we have found several common deficiencies, so ELPC and other organizations have submitted comments for IDEM to consider. We highlight technical and legal problems and outline specifically how IDEM should fix them to be compliant with the Clean Air Act (as well as Indiana regulations). ELPC is requesting that IDEM address these deficiencies before they publish the final Title V permits.
- Weak Terms – The Clean Air Act requires Title V permits to include monitoring and related recordkeeping and reporting provisions. 40 C.F.R. § 70.6(a)(3). These terms are critical legal obligations which the regulated facility must meet to assure compliance with their emission limits. Permit terms also are a basis by which the regulating agency (IDEM) can enforce violations. In several of these recent air permits, there are sections which are missing terms outlining the facility’s required monitoring, recordkeeping, and/or reporting provisions. For example, in the case of Cleveland-Cliffs Burns Harbor, the permit failed to list any requirements for the Coke By-Product Recovery Plant. Both Cleveland-Cliffs Steel and the BP Whiting oil refinery permit lacked monitoring or testing requirements for several emissions sources as did the permit for US Steel Gary Works (including for their blast furnaces). Without such terms, how can IDEM assure compliance with emission limits? In short, they cannot.
- Insufficient Monitoring – Another common issue is the lack of sufficient monitoring and testing in the permit. The Clean Air Act requires that monitoring should “yield reliable data from the relevant time period.” That is, the frequency of monitoring and testing should have a connection to the time period for the emission limit. For example, the requirement to monitor emissions hourly would have a connection to a particulate matter emission limit given in pounds/hour. Instead, the blast furnaces at the US Steel Gary Works have particulate matter emissions limits in pounds/hour, but the monitoring requirement is for the smokestack to be tested once every five years. This cannot possibly assure compliance under variable operating conditions the other 1824 days until the next test. And the Cleveland-Cliffs Burns Harbor permit failed to include required twice/year stack tests for SO2 for the coke oven batteries.
- Missing Documents – Finally, another common problem with these permits is that they are lacking required supporting documentation. All Title V permits require what is called a statement of basis, which provides the “legal and factual basis for the draft permit conditions,” and requires discussion of decision-making, monitoring and operational requirements, applicability and exemption determinations, and compliance history. 40 CFR § 70.7(a)(5); see S. EPA Region V Letter. None of the Title V permits issued by IDEM that have been reviewed by ELPC included a statement of basis. Additionally, the permits for these facilities failed to include various plans (including Compliance Assurance Monitoring Plans, Continuous Compliance Plans, and Preventive Maintenance Plans) that they rely upon for their compliance with their permit and the Clean Air Act—even when required by law. See 40 CFR § 70.7(h)(2). For example Cleveland-Cliffs Burns Harbor and US Steel Gary Works failed to incorporate important, legally required plans such as their Compliance Schedule, Sulfur Fuel Sampling and Analysis Plan, and Ozone Action Day Plan. See 40 C.F.R. § 70.6(c)(3); 326 IAC 7-4-14(E)(ii)(BB); 326 IAC 8-13-4(b)(8)(B). And BP Whiting’s Leak Detection and Repair Plan was not included in their permit renewal even though their draft permit was published at a time BP Whiting had several tank leaks. See BP Leaks and Refinery Shutdown.
What all of this demonstrates is that there has been a consistent lack of appropriate regulation of major sources of industrial pollution in Northwest Indiana. ELPC isn’t asking IDEM to go above and beyond the law in writing these air permits which have so much community impact—we are merely asking them to draft permits consistent with the law, paving the way for a healthier Northwest Indiana.
What can people do to help?
This Wednesday, IDEM is holding a public hearing for an air permit renewal for Tradebe hazardous waste facility in East Chicago, IN. Our friends at the University of Chicago Abrams Environmental Law Clinic highlighted some issues they found with this draft permit, and you can read their factsheet here. Share your concerns with IDEM. Come out to the hearing in Whiting this Wednesday or submit written comments to [email protected] by November 4, 2024.
If you live in Northwest Indiana and want to get involved in the future, follow us on social media, or check out our partner organizations like Gary Advocates for Responsible Development (GARD), Just Transition Northwest Indiana, or the Hoosier Environmental Council. ELPC and our partners watch for new permits, advocate for public hearings/meetings, and dig into the details to help bring awareness so everyday people can engage and make a difference.