Burns Harbor News

Thursday, December 31, 2009 Environment - More on Environment - "Indiana Attorney General Zoeller to support Michigan in Asian carp lawsuit" Updating yesterday's ILB entry , the latest word is that "Wisconsin joins other states in Asian carp battle." This map from Wikipedia shows only two Great Lake states outstanding -- Pennsylvania and New York.

Because I'm a creature of the newsroom, my memories of 2009 spring from there -- pathetic as that might make my personal life seem.

The president of United Steelworkers Local 6787 is calling a Wall Street Journal report this week that ArcelorMittal is planning to cut 10,000 jobs a 'vicious rumor.' Paul Gipson told the Chesterton Tribune today that the USW has been unable to substantiate that report.

Right now the Northwest Indiana Steel Museum is a vapor, a dream unrealized to preserve the history of an industry that spawned a region.

Residents of the town of Burns Harbor and the Boone Grove area will keep their community recycling bins, thanks to the mailing of Porter County property tax bills earlier this month.

The Burns Harbor volunteer Fire Department was authorized this week to apply for certification to transport the injured or ill using basic life support protocol when Porter hospital Emergency Medical Services ambulances are delayed.

Burns Harbor gets to keep the recycling drop-off containers located at the town Street Department, and the Porter County Recycling and Waste Reduction District will continue to pay for them.

Environmental Protection Agency officials have searched the offices and plant of a northwest Indiana slag producer as part of an investigation into potential environmental crimes.

Burns Harbor town officials decided Wednesday to convene a meeting of interested parties in hopes of addressing long-standing problems at Rainbow mobile home park.

Tempers were heated at times and voices were raised when Northwest Indiana residents got the opportunity to ask state officials about waste management practices at ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor, lack of state enforcement and transparency Wednesday night.

ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor will soon begin to recycle one of the waste types it applied to dispose of in a new landfill, a company official said.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management will hold an informational meeting and a public hearing Wednesday on Arcelor Mittal's proposal to open a new solid waste landfill at its Burns Harbor plant.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management was put on the hot seat several times Wednesday by critics who questioned how the agency has managed wastes that have accumulated at the Arcelor Mittal steel plant in Burns Harbor for decades.

Indiana Department of Environmental Management Commissioner Tom Easterly has read the Post-Tribune's coverage of a 33-acre waste pile at ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor that company officials and IDEM staff have named after him.

The recession is among the reasons northwestern Indiana officials believe the push has stalled to land a major truck-and-rail center that could employ thousands of people.

Waste piles dumped at ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor are raising eyebrows at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

No one has answers for "Easterly's pile." At the Wednesday public meeting that ArcelorMittal was bound by law to hold, the company had no answers for questions about its pile of waste in Burns Harbor and whether it would be going into its proposed landfill.

Every year Fraternal Order of Police Westchester Lodge No. 152 gives a bunch of needy kids in the community a truly merry Christmas, with its Shop with the Cop program.

Tom Easterly wouldn't comment about a pile of steelmaking waste at ArcelorMittal in Burns Harbor that bears his name and has been sitting exposed to the environment for more than two decades.

Records about waste at the former Bethlehem Steel and ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor are difficult to come by.