By Alex Dalton
The coalition of environmental advocacy groups that has been urging the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to place stricter requirements on an East Chicago waste processor lauded the agency for changes made to the facility’s renewed Resource Conservation and Recovery Act permit.
Tradebe Treatment and Recycling’s facility on Kennedy Avenue stores and processes hazardous waste products from a variety of industrial sources. The company has a lengthy history of permit violations, including for hazardous waste that was improperly stored, inappropriately handled or accidentally spilled at the facility.
Environmental advocacy groups, including the the East Chicago Calumet Coalition Community Advisory Group, the University of Chicago’s Abrams Environmental Law Clinic, the Environmental Law & Policy Center and the Conservation Law Center, have taken note of Tradebe’s track record and identified what they say were inadequate environmental protections in Tradebe’s draft RCRA permit. The groups submitted lengthy recommendations to IDEM during the permit renewal’s public comment period in the fall, urging the agency to take a stricter approach to Tradebe.
The campaign proved a modest success. The Jan. 31 permit renewal and modification that IDEM issued to Tradebe contains a number of changes that the groups said are steps towards helping keep East Chicago residents safe. The modified permit contains expanded reporting obligations for violations of air quality regulations, an obligation to provide a more thorough accounting of chemical spills at the site and a requirement that Tradebe submit an updated employee training plan, among other changes made in response to public comments.