Duckworth, Durbin Express Concern over ArcelorMittal Inspection Summary, Urge EPA to Take Action
Letter follows recent inspection report that concluded ArcelorMittal’s self-monitoring program and its contract laboratory were unsatisfactory
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) expressed concerns over the results of a recent Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) inspection summary of ArcelorMittal USA’s Burns Harbor facility that showed the company’s self-monitoring program and its contract laboratory, Microbac, were both deemed unsatisfactory in terms of its procedures and laboratory methods. In August 2019, after a blast furnace wastewater failure, the Burns Harbor facility released cyanide and ammonia into the Little Calumet River and Lake Michigan, killing 3,000 fish, causing delays to the operations at a water treatment plant, and closing two beaches. Since then, the facility has been required to perform daily testing of these chemicals and report to IDEM. Today, in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 Administrator Kurt Thiede, Durbin and Duckworth urged EPA to to continue to work with IDEM to ensure the facility is held accountable for its violations and required to correct its unsatisfactory self-reporting procedures and contract laboratory methods, as found in the IDEM inspection report.
“We ask that EPA continue to coordinate its efforts with IDEM regarding these unsatisfactory inspection results and compliance issues with ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor, work with the facility to identify and implement equipment upgrades, strengthen the current permit to require stricter testing, inspection, and emissions limits, take the necessary enforcement actions, and ensure the facility works with a contractor lab that is able to provide trustworthy data, using proper quality control protocols and analytical methods,” wrote Durbin and Duckworth. “We hope that EPA will use its full authority to ensure that companies uphold their Clean Water Act permits and are held accountable for pollution discharges into one of our greatest national treasures—Lake Michigan.”
The results, reported recently by the Chicago Tribune, were referred to IDEM’s Office of Water Quality (OWQ) Enforcement Section for appropriate action. The report discusses issues with the procedures that the facility has implemented for its required self-monitoring program, issues with the contract lab’s methods and documentation, and the practice of exclusively reanalyzing samples that revealed a violation of the company’s permit.
In March, Durbin met with ArcelorMittal USA CEO John Brett and urged him to take responsibility for its Burns Harbor facility’s leaking of toxic chemicals into the Little Calumet River and Lake Michigan.
In January, Durbin and Duckworth sent a letter to ArcelorMittal urging it to take financial responsibility for the facility’s Clean Water Act violations and permit’s reporting and notification requirements, ensure that proper testing procedures and operating protocols are followed, and work closely with both Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to prevent a recurrence of this damaging pollution in the future.
Durbin and Duckworth have also called on the U.S. EPA to urge IDEM to conduct a full investigation of ArcelorMittal’s Burns Harbor facility in northwest Indiana following reports from Chicago Tribune and CBS Chicago that the corporation is manipulating water tests and that unacceptable levels of cyanide and ammonia were found in the water discharged from the plant.
Full text of the letter is available here and below:
April 24, 2020
Dear Administrator Thiede:
We write to follow up on our January 8, letter expressing our concerns over water pollution discharges of toxic chemicals from the ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor facility in Indiana, and the alarming Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) report that demonstrated significant issues with the facility’s self-reported data from January. We reiterate those issues, express our concerns over IDEM’s recent inspection conclusions, and urge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to continue to work with IDEM to ensure the facility is held accountable for its violations and required to correct its unsatisfactory self-reporting procedures and contract laboratory methods, as found in the IDEM inspection report.
We also ask, in a response, if EPA agrees with IDEM’s assessment of violations found at the ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor facility, and if the agency concurs with the state’s recommendations for corrective action.
Since we’ve last written, and since Senator Durbin’s call with then-Administrator Stepp, IDEM released its inspection report finding that ArcelorMittal’s self-monitoring program, as well as the facility’s contract laboratory, Microbac, were deemed unsatisfactory. As you may know, the results of the inspection have been referred to IDEM’s Office of Water Quality (OWQ) for enforcement actions. According to the report, Mircobac failed to comply with analytical and sampling procedures as required by the Clean Water Act.
A recent Chicago Tribune Article noted that during an inspection, it was found that only samples that violated the facility’s permit were reanalyzed, among the total samples analyzed by Microbac. We have shared our concerns about the August 2019 incident that killed 3,000 fish in the Little Calumet River and Lake Michigan and closed water treatment plants and beaches. We have also shared our concerns about the company’s failure to immediately inform public officials of this toxic spill. And now, we are disturbed by the results from the inspections over the past few months and urge you to appropriately address the results from the report by using your enforcement authorities to require corrective action.
We ask that EPA continue to coordinate its efforts with IDEM regarding these unsatisfactory inspection results and compliance issues with ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor, work with the facility to identify and implement equipment upgrades, strengthen the current permit to require stricter testing, inspection, and emissions limits, take the necessary enforcement actions, and ensure the facility works with a contractor lab that is able to provide trustworthy data, using proper quality control protocols and analytical methods.
Rectifying these unsatisfactory self-monitoring and contract laboratory results is critical, as the integrity of a facility’s self-reported data is a key component to the execution of the Clean Water Act.
We hope that EPA will use its full authority to ensure that companies uphold their Clean Water Act permits and are held accountable for pollution discharges into one of our greatest national treasures—Lake Michigan.
Sincerely,
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