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Reports of
water treatment violations float to the surface
Kokomo Tribune -
8/17
With the 30th
anniversary of the Clean Water Act coming in a little more than a
month, sewage treatment facilities across the state and nation are
still having trouble meeting their goal of eliminating the
discharge of pollution into waterways.
That includes
several local municipal treatment facilities in Kokomo, Peru,
Logansport and Elwood.
Indiana has the
fourth-highest number of major municipal and industrial treatment
plants in the nation, 89, in significant noncompliance with the
act. It's sixth in the percent of facilities in non-compliance,
48.6 percent.
Heather Swinney,
campaign director of the Indiana Public Interest Research Group,
said the continuing pollution of waterways shows the Environmental
Protection Agency and Indiana Department of Environmental
Management need to step up enforcement.
"We hoped
that permits would be tightened over time, and there would be no
more discharges at this point," Swinney said. "The EPA
lacks the resources to enforce the laws ... and when fines are
issued, they are so small [the violators] will pay because it's
more cost-effective for them than fixing the problem."
Kokomo's plant
has one violation against it for a non-monthly effluent violation
in one quarter, for discharging too much of a chemical into the
Wildcat Creek.
Peru's sewer
treatment plant was cited for polluting too much in one month, as
was Logansport's treatment plant.
Power plants in
Peru and Logansport also were cited for not turning in their
monthly discharge reports.
"Basically,
we have no idea what they discharged, and it was probably
something bad," Swinney said.
At the same time,
the Kokomo treatment plant is in the middle of a massive upgrade
to reduce the amount of pollutants going into the Wildcat Creek.
Peru's plant,
which has been overtaxed for years, recently received permission
to start millions of dollars of improvements.
"Because we
have a combined sewer system, there are times we generate more
wastewater than we can process at the plant," said Roger
Merriman, general manager of Peru Utilities.
Merriman said the
plant also is near its maximum rating of treating 4 million
gallons a day.
Most violations
are subject to a $25,000-a-day fine, though Tom Neltner, a legal
advisor to the Sierra Club, said the state rarely takes action,
and if it does, the maximum fine is rarely enforced.
He believes the
state can be more efficient in going after violators of the Clean
Water Act, though he said IDEM is understaffed.
"A lot is
bad management," Neltner said. "They aren't willing to
pursue enforcement until it's become too bad."
A proposal by the
Bush administration to eliminate the jobs of 200 EPA personnel who
monitor compliance with the Clean Water Act, 13 percent of the
monitoring staff, will make the problem worse, Swinney said.
"We need to
make sure the EPA has the people to enforce the act," Swinney
said. "We're risking our health and the well-being of our
communities."
In trouble:
The following
local facilities had significant violations of their Clean Water
Act permits in the five quarters between Jan. 1, 2000, and March
31, 2001:
Kokomo Municipal
STP - 1 non-monthly effluent violation
Peru Municipal
STP - 1 monthly effluent violation
Peru Power Plant
- 1 violation for not sending monthly discharge report
Logansport
Municipal STP - 2 monthly effluent violations
Logansport City
Electric Co. - 1 violation for not sending monthly discharge
report
Elwood Municipal
STP - 1 violation for not sending monthly discharge report
Source: Indiana
Public Interest Research Group
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