Background

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) prohibits open dumping of solid waste. Nevertheless, ArcelorMittal and prior owners of the Burns Harbor steel mill have, for decades, discarded, dumped and disposed of toxic steel-making wastes and sludges on open ground, without containment in locations that are dangerously close to sensitive areas including Lake Michigan, the Indiana Dunes National Lake Shore and the Indiana Harbor. Because the wastes are not contained they are polluting the surrounding air, land and water with harmful contaminants such as lead, cadmium, sellenium, chromium, benzene, arsenic and others.

Rather than enforce the facility’s past and continued open dumping violations, IDEM issued a permit to allow ArcelorMittal to construct an onsite landfill for disposal of the wastes. The landfill will take years to construct and the facility generates several hundred thousand tons of waste annually in addition to the millions of tons of waste that are already dumped on the ground. However, the landfill permit does not require the company to monitor, control, treat, or otherwise manage these toxic wastes prior to disposal in the landfill thereby allowing the wastes to continue harming the environment.

LEAF Action

On July 19, 2010, LEAF filed a Petition for Administrative Review with the Office of Environmental Adjudication (OEA) on behalf of Save the Dunes Conservation Fund.  The permit appeal seeks to force IDEM to include requirements for leachate and stormwater control, ground water monitoring, dust supression and other controls to prevent the waste from contaminating the environment.