June 02, 2025
Today, environmental and community groups submitted a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking it to object to an inadequate air permit renewal the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) recently issued to steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs’ Indiana Harbor East and West facilities in East Chicago, Indiana. The permit falls significantly short of basic provisions, including failure to include monitoring, testing, and recordkeeping needed to assure compliance with Clean Air Act requirements.
The Environmental Law & Policy Center, Conservation Law Center, Environmental Integrity Project, Gary Advocates for Responsible Development, Just Transition Northwest Indiana and other groups contend that IDEM disregarded key concerns that U.S. EPA raised about the permits during the public comment period. The Cleveland-Cliffs facilities are among the largest integrated steel mills in the world, occupying over 2,400 acres of Lake Michigan shoreline surrounding Indiana Harbor in East Chicago. Residents living nearby have been exposed to higher levels of air pollution for decades compared to most communities nationwide.
Ellis Walton, Associate Attorney at the Environmental Law & Policy Center, said:
“If this permit is approved as is, the Cleveland-Cliffs facilities will likely release harmful emissions into the air including PM10 ultrafine particulate matter and nitrous oxide above the limitations set by the Clean Air Act. The communities of East Chicago and Gary suffer many environmental injustices already and shouldn’t be forced to bear even more harms from local industry.”
Dorreen Carey, President of Gary Advocates for Responsible Development, said:
“IDEM’s renewal of the Cleveland-Cliffs air permit fails to protect the residents of surrounding communities from decades-long and ongoing exposure to health-harming air pollutants that are the proven cause of significant increases in respiratory diseases (like asthma), cardiovascular diseases (like heart attacks), cancers at numerous sites, and premature deaths. The current outmoded and insufficient methods of emission monitoring in the Cleveland-Cliffs air permit renewal cannot assure continuous compliance and enforcement of the Clean Air Act. EPA must act to object to this permit renewal and meet its obligation to protect human health and the environment.”
Susan Thomas, Policy Director of Just Transition Northwest Indiana, said:
“It is beyond frustrating to have grave concerns from pollution-impacted communities in Northwest Indiana ignored yet again by IDEM. Just Transition Northwest Indiana has testified at countless permit hearings with frontline residents calling out a lack of basic permitting oversight and enforcement. The health of our children, communities, and environment is suffering direct harm from IDEM’s free passes to polluting industry. Cleveland-Cliffs is fully capable of implementing best-available technologies and practices and should do so as any responsible corporate neighbor would. IDEM is supposed to protect us and has failed its obligation in this permit.”