{"id":981,"date":"2010-12-06T08:22:26","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T15:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=981"},"modified":"2010-12-06T08:22:26","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T15:22:26","slug":"idems-easterly-denies-any-responsibility-for-the-pile-of-crap-he-left-behind-by-lake-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=981","title":{"rendered":"IDEM&#8217;s Easterly denies any responsibility for the pile of crap he left behind by Lake Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/valleywatch.net.previewdns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Easterly.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-982\" title=\"Easterly\" src=\"http:\/\/valleywatch.net.previewdns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Easterly.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"247\" \/><\/a><strong>July  19, 2010-by Gitte Laasby, in the Post Tribune. According to an IDEM  inspection report this spring, the pile is 900 feet long and 67 feet  tall. It contains slag and 274,000 cubic yards of basic oxygen furnace  sludge and rubble interspersed with burned lime. The pile sits a couple  of hundred feet from Lake Michigan and the Indiana Dunes National  Lakeshore. Nearby are tall piles of rubble.<\/strong><br \/>\nndiana Department of Environmental Management  Commissioner Thomas Easterly is getting fed up with media reports and  activists&#8217; complaints about how his agency handles environmental issues  in Northwest Indiana.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent letter to IDEM employees,  Easterly voiced his disgruntlement with activists&#8217; challenges of BP  Whiting&#8217;s air permit, and delays in issuing U.S. Steel Gary Works&#8217;  wastewater permit.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb Click to enlarge image<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Easterly, IDEM Commissioner<br \/>\n(Post-Tribune file photo)<\/p>\n<p>He also denied the existence of a pile of steelmaking waste that representatives at ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor named after him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Recent  stories about recycling, materials management, and waste management at  Arcelor Mittal Burns Harbor &#8230; have even named a non-existent feature  after me,&#8221; Easterly wrote in the June 3 memo obtained by the  Post-Tribune. &#8220;Recent observations by a State Legislator and IDEM staff,  including Chief of Staff (Kent) Abernathy, confirm my recollection from  10 years ago that the area called a &#8216;pile&#8217; by the press is actually a  depression partially filled with stockpiled materials for recycling to  make steel.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Valparaiso lawyer Kim Ferraro, of the Legal  Environmental Aid Foundation of Indiana, said the definition of the area  is a matter of semantics.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whether it&#8217;s a depressed area or  level ground doesn&#8217;t matter. It&#8217;s full of stockpiled materials. It  doesn&#8217;t make a difference,&#8221; she said. &#8220;There are definitely wastes  sitting out there next to Lake Michigan, and IDEM has documented it in  their own inspection reports.&#8221; (MORE)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.post-trib.com\/news\/2508852,new-easterlymemo0717.article\" target=\"_blank\">Go to Original<\/a><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>July 19, 2010-by Gitte Laasby, in the Post Tribune. According to an IDEM inspection report this spring, the pile is 900 feet long and 67 feet tall. It contains slag and 274,000 cubic yards of basic oxygen furnace sludge and &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=981\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":983,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions\/983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}