GARY

Hearing tonight on U.S. Steel water permit

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management will host a public meeting at 6 tonight on a wastewater permit plan that would impose stricter measures for U.S. Steel cyanide discharges into the Grand Calumet River.

The meeting will take place at the main branch of the Gary Public Library, 220 W. 5th Ave.

For more information, visit www.in.gov./idem/permits/wastewater/public_notice/index.html#bp.

PORTAGE

Izaak Walton League wants BP permit axed

The Great Lakes Committee of the Izaak Walton League of America and the Indiana Division of the Izaak Walton League are asking the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to withdraw a recently issued permit that would allow BP Whiting Refinery to increase ammonia and suspended solids discharges into Lake Michigan as part of a $3.8 billion plant expansion plan.

In a letter to IDEM Commissioner Thomas Easterly, local league president Charles Siar writes, "It is our position that no new increases in pollution to the lake should be permitted and the renewal of any existing permit should significantly decrease the amount of pollutants allows into our public water supply. The limits set in the permit may be well within federal guidelines, but if they result in a net increase of solids and toxins entering the lake, they should be rejected." Easterly has said the discharges will not affect the drinking water, recreation or aquatic life in the lake.