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Many Hoosiers gave Tom Easterly the benefit of the doubt that he would put his duty to protect the environment before business interests as director of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. It appears he is taking unfair advantage of their generous nature.
Easterly owes Indiana residents an immediate and complete explanation about a pile of toxic steelmaking waste at ArcelorMittal in Burns Harbor, why it’s difficult to find documents related to the waste and why IDEM is failing to compel the company to comply with state environmental regulations.
Many environmental advocates – and this page – encouraged guarded optimism in Easterly’s pledge to protect Indiana’s environment when Gov. Mitch Daniels appointed him as IDEM commissioner in 2005. There was reason for doubt given he was in charge of environmental issues at Bethlehem Steel – one of ArcelorMittal’s predecessors – from 1994 to 2000.
A series of stories by environmental reporter Gitte Laasby that ran in the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana this week adds to the concern about Easterly’s leadership at IDEM. There is a 35-foot-tall tower of steelmaking waste at ArcelorMittal in Burns Harbor. Contrary to state law, parts of the mountain of waste have sat there as long as two decades. The heap, dubbed “Easterly’s pile” because it was started under his watch as environmental manager at Bethlehem Steel, sits about 200 feet from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Lake Michigan. It includes toxins such as lead, chromium, cadmium, silver and nickel and is exposed to the elements, likely contaminating the nearby air, soil and water.
An IDEM inspector visited the plant twice in 2008 and found the violations, but no enforcement action has occurred.
As the state’s top environmental regulator, Easterly is now responsible for oversight of his former employer. The concentration of the contamination in the pile likely requires landfill disposal. Open dumping of the waste is illegal under state and federal laws.
Equally concerning is that public records related to the waste pile appear to be missing.
So far, Easterly has refused to comment on the waste pile in Burns Harbor.
Easterly’s pile only adds to the growing list of failures of the Daniels administration to demonstrate a commitment to protecting the environment. Good environmental stewardship is what is best for Indiana’s economy. Easterly’s environmental protection failures are giving Hoosiers too many reasons to regret giving him their guarded trust.
