From the Journal Gazette

Indiana’s environmental regulators bill the program as a public-private partnership to promote pollution prevention and environmental stewardship.

But the list of the companies participating in the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s Partners for Pollution Prevention is replete with firms cited for breaking the state’s environmental laws and features some of the state’s largest polluters.

Twenty-two of IDEM’s 58 "partners" have been fined by the agency for environmental violations. Among them, they’ve racked up more than $1 million in fines and agency demands, state records show.

Big polluters on the list, according to federal data, include Duke Energy, General Motors and BP Products. In fact, the 17 IDEM partners that are among the state’s top 10 percent of air polluters by volume were responsible for 27 percent of all the air toxins in Indiana that had to be reported to the Environmental Protection Agency in 2007.

Seven of IDEM’s partners were among the top 25 dischargers of pollution into Indiana’s lakes and streams in 2007, according to EPA data. If AK Steel Corp.’s Rockport Works isn’t included, those seven accounted for almost 18 percent of the poison released into Hoosier waters.

IDEM officials defend the program; environmentalists blast such initiatives in the many states that have them.

"We call it promiscuous partnering," said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, an environmental group based in Washington, D.C. "It’s like the (Securities and Exchange Commission) saying ‘Instead of investigating, we’ll give awards to companies who don’t bilk investors.’ They’d be laughed out of the room."

IDEM officials say the program is the only way for the state to measure and highlight gains being made in pollution reduction.

"We want to work on continual improvement," said Bobbie Steiff, who heads the program for IDEM. "Steel, energy – they’re historically very dirty industries, but they’re working very hard to improve, and that’s what we want to capture and measure."

Praising polluters?

How does one become one of IDEM’s partners? Take a pledge to spread the word about the good work you’re doing and attend at least two quarterly meetings a year.

The last quarterly meeting was hosted by ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, at its steel mills – the largest steel manufacturing facility in the Western Hemisphere – on the shores of Lake Michigan.

That was June 11; the company had been fined $17,600 by IDEM just seven months before and would be fined $28,196 about six weeks after the meeting. Five days after that fine was levied, the company was notified it was facing another IDEM fine; that penalty is still being negotiated.

All told, ArcelorMittal’s plants participating in the program have been fined more than $100,000 since 1997, according to IDEM records. In 2007, according to numbers it reported to the EPA, those facilities pumped more than 200,000 pounds of toxins into the air.

"Just one of their facilities makes 100 million pounds of steel a year," said Rick Bossingham, assistant commissioner of IDEM’s Office of Pollution Prevention. "Based on their production, they’re very efficient."

ArcelorMittal officials said they strive to run a clean operation.

"As a vital employer and community member in Indiana, ArcelorMittal takes our environmental performance seriously and is committed to continually improving the environmental performance of our operations," spokesman Adam Warrington said in a written statement.

Bossingham said all of ArcelorMittal’s emissions were within the amounts permitted by state and federal law.

"Our job is to enforce regulations, not to say you cannot release anything at all," he said.

But PEER’s Ruch said it’s important to remember that IDEM’s job is to be an enforcer, not a cheerleader.

"These companies are not necessarily bad guys, but these agencies are supposed to be regulators," Ruch said. "If your regulatory style is to have a party and give out party favors for pollution control, that raises questions."

General Motors Co.’s Fort Wayne Assembly plant releases more air pollution than any other facility in Allen County; it too, is one of IDEM’s partners. In 2007, according to the EPA, the plant released more than 656,000 pounds of pollutants into the air.

What do IDEM’s partners gain?

IDEM says the benefits include:

•Statewide recognition by IDEM and others for pollution prevention efforts

•Promotion of pollution prevention projects through IDEM publications

•Networking opportunities with IDEM representatives and leading pollution prevention advocates in Indiana industry

•A Partner Pledge Certificate signed by the commissioner of IDEM

•Use of the Partners logo on environmental reports and other company literature

•Opportunity to provide input during IDEM policy and regulatory initiatives

Bossingham said the idea is collaboration.

"We have some of the top performers in here, and they all share ideas and get better at it," Bossingham said. "It’s really all about continued improvement."

IDEM officials point to a list of achievements reported by their partners, showing reductions in emissions, materials used and wastes created and increases in recycling and the use of green-energy sources.

But PEER’s Ruch said continued improvement is never proved by these programs because they track only anecdotes.

"Unless you have systemic reduction, these programs end up being nothing but shuck and jive," Ruch said. "Because you’ve got a trophy over here, it masks a horror story over there."

Fining your friends

IDEM’s partners have their share of environmental horror stories.

BP Products, a partner since 2000, has been a focus of controversy for two years, since it was revealed that IDEM was going to permit the BP Whiting oil refinery to increase the amount of pollution it was dumping into Lake Michigan.

ArcelorMittal was the subject of a story Nov. 15 in the Post-Tribune of Merrillville showing how the steelmaker has essentially been operating an open dump on the shore of Lake Michigan in defiance of state law since the mid-1980s.

The newspaper quoted IDEM sources saying the existence of the dump – filled with hazardous wastes such as lead, nickel, chromium and cadmium in concentrations high enough to require the most restrictive type of landfill – has been ignored by IDEM officials, including IDEM Commissioner Tom Easterly, who oversaw the site as an employee of Bethlehem Steel, which used to own it.

Another partner, Vertellus Agriculture & Nutrition Specialties in Indianapolis, has amassed $229,063 in fines since 1998, including $81,050 since it joined the program in 2000. In 1998, when it was known as Reilly Industries, it was cited because company inspectors were using inspection sheets that had been photocopied with all the inspection results already filled in.

Bossingham said many of the violations racked up by IDEM’s partners were simply paperwork problems.

BFGoodrich in Woodburn, a partner since 2008, was fined in 2007 for installing 22 tire-curing presses without permits. The company had to pay a $19,800 fine and install pollution controls worth $240,000. It had also been fined $16,000 in 2000 for violations.

Plant Manager Paul Cagle said the program has been a valuable resource for sharing the best ways to reduce the company’s environmental impact and improving the quality of life for the community.

"Michelin, and the BFGoodrich Tire Manufacturing plant in Fort Wayne, go to great lengths to ensure that our manufacturing processes and day-to-day operations significantly reduce our environmental footprint," Cagle said in a written statement.

"Above and beyond our participation in the Partners for Pollution Prevention program, we have achieved – and continue work to exceed – a broad set of objectives related to environmental sustainability."

IDEM officials say they do monitor program participants’ activities.

"We do a pretty quick compliance check," Steiff said. "We want you to be in compliance when we give you the pledge certificate. We know there’s been partners that have been out of compliance, and we’ve worked with them to get them back into compliance."

Ruch said there’s a name for that, too.

"Officially, it’s called compliance assistance, and some agencies have units that just do that," he said. "The difficulty is if there’s never any real enforcement, then ‘compliance assistance’ is really ‘compliance evasion.’ "

Bossingham said the seriousness of a violation weighs on the decision to let someone join or remain in the program.

"We look at the records. We ask our compliance inspectors for comment," Bossingham said. But violations "would depend on what the level is. … Certainly things that cause actual harm to the environment, … that would be a very serious consideration."

Steiff said no partner has ever been removed from the program because of violations.

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