A wastewater permit for U.S. Steel's Gary Works is on hold until Indiana environmental regulators can come up with a new antidegradation regulation to protect Lake Michigan.

"We can't say they have met this rule until we know what this rule is," Indiana Department of Environmental Management Commissioner Thomas Easterly said Thursday. "Without a rule, no one knows if we're protecting the lake."

A wastewater permit for U.S. Steel's Midwest Division in Portage and three AcelorMittal steel production sites also are on hold.

Indiana's lack of an effective antidegradation policy was pointed out last month by Indiana University professor James Barnes in a report on IDEM's controversial wastewater permit for BP.

The report concluded the permit complied with state and federal rules, but it said Indiana's lack of clear antidegradation regulations prevented IDEM from getting complete information from BP. It also hindered the state agency's ability to defend the permit.

"We need speedy decisions but we also need decisions people can have confidence in," Easterly said in a review of the BP permit process. "That just didn't happen here."

Easterly spoke in front of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission Environmental Management and Policy Committee at the regional agency's headquarters in Portage.

He told the committee -- made up of local elected officials and the leaders of a number of environmental groups -- that IDEM is reacting swiftly to lessons learned during the blowup over the BP permit.

The EPA already has objected to IDEM's proposed permit for U.S. Steel, saying discharges of cyanide and heavy metals would violate Indiana's current antidegradation regulations.

IDEM now plans on getting nonobjection determinations on proposed permits from the EPA before taking them forward for public review, Easterly said.

The EPA's antidegradation policy requires states to formulate regulations to prevent pollution that would endanger existing uses of state waters.

For "high quality" waters like lake Michigan, increases in discharges are only allowed after exhaustive review. The polluter also must show there are not feasible alternatives and that it serves an important economic or social purpose.

Implementing such a regulation has been thorny issue in Indiana. IDEM took public comment on a proposed regulation in 2003 and 2005, Easterly said. Both times it received many "negative" comments both from environmentalists and industry.

Easterly is now hopeful an antidegradation regulation can be in place by the end of this year. The usual process takes 18 months.

That means area steelmakers will continue to operate on administratively renewed permits, which generally do not have updated limits for discharges.

Easterly is well-acquainted with the region, having formerly worked in environmental services for Bethlehem Steel Corp. at Burns Harbor.