Representatives of Carmeuse’s Gary lime manufacturing facility pledged their commitment to open communication with the city and its residents at a Thursday meeting of the Gary Common Council’s Air Pollution Central Advisory Committee.
“We’re looking forward to building a transparent relationship,” Carmeuse area manager Matt Gower told the committee. Gower, along with environmental manager Sarah Langeliers, fielded questions from committee members and from an audience of around 20 attendees.
Located in Gary’s Buffington Harbor, the Carmeuse facility manufactures lime for use in the steel industry. The site has operated under the Belgium-based company’s ownership since 1992 and for decades more before that.
The pending renewal of the facility’s air permit, issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) and now under review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has proved controversial. Gary residents, environmental advocates and the EPA itself have voiced concerns over the facility’s environmental impact and urged IDEM’s caution with its renewal throughout a monthslong application process that is now nearing its close.
In June, members of the grassroots group Gary Advocates for Responsible Development (GARD) and staff at the Midwest-based Environmental Law and Policy Center called on IDEM to approve a renewed permit with more stringent emissions testing requirements after ELPC staff reviewed publicly available IDEM records and identified a string of past permit violations. In several cases, staff at the facility were found to have not conducted required emissions tests or not recorded the results of tests.
“We have some challenges in terms of our historical compliance and we’re taking proactive actions to mitigate those,” Gower said.
Later that month, EPA Region 5 Air and Radiation Division Director John Mooney sent a letter to the permit branch chief at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s Office of Air Quality in which he wrote that the Carmeuse permit renewal raised “environmental justice concerns.” Mooney urged IDEM to conduct an analysis to “evaluate the potential effects that the permitting action will have on the community, and the degree to which these effects will be disproportionate and adverse,” among other recommendations.
A draft permit was submitted to the EPA by IDEM on Nov. 16. The EPA has until Dec. 31 to approve the document or raise objections, after which IDEM will issue a final notice approving or denying the company’s application.
GARD, the ELPC and the Mooney all raised concerns over the burning of engineered fuels — those made from plastic, paper and other combustible waste — at the Carmeuse facility. Carmeuse owns Innofuel Energy Solutions, a facility located near the Gary/Chicago International Airport, that handles engineered fuels. In November of 2020, a large fire broke out at the site, and personnel from multiple local fire departments were dispatched to contain it. One worker suffered serious injuries.