Indiana is not alone in its struggles over water protection.

As turmoil over BP Whiting's new wastewater permit raged last year, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management was a target of blistering criticism, some that IDEM regulators admitted was warranted.

Politicians, environmentalists and concerned residents called IDEM soft on industry, accusing the agency of neglecting water quality rules and reams of outdated water permits.

But regulators from neighboring Lake Michigan states called the flack thrown at IDEM familiar, having faced some of the same problems or hurdles.

One Michigan regulator suggested that witnessing the controversy unfold felt very close to home.

"We sat there and watched what was happening to BP and U.S. Steel and thought, 'It could be one of us,' " said William Creal, chief of the water bureau permitting section of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

In fact, for all of the controversy surrounding chemical pollution of the Lake Michigan basin from Northwest Indiana, regulators in other lake states say they face the same challenges in enforcing environmental rules, some of which are tough if not impossible for facilities to meet.

Pollutant problems

Hoosier regulators were slammed by some environmentalists and out-of-state elected officials for being lax on releases of mercury, what one Illinois regulator calls "the pollutant of the day."

Toby Frevert, former manager of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's Division of Water Pollution Control, said in years past, dioxins and PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, faced the same controversy and attention that mercury now is enduring.

Regulators in Great Lakes states have struggled with how best to administer a federal rule aimed at diminishing mercury discharges into the lakes.

Short- and long-term exposure to mercury, including through consumption of contaminated fish, can cause a slew of problems, including lung and kidney damage, health experts say.

IDEM came under fire for allowing BP and U.S. Steel Gary Works five years to comply with federal mercury limits in their new wastewater permits. While BP's permit has been approved, U.S. Steel's is on hold, pending objections from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The federal rule would limit facilities to a monthly concentration of 1.3 parts mercury per trillion parts of water.

"That limit's incredibly stringent," said Bruno Pigott, deputy commissioner for IDEM's Office of Water Quality. "It's a technology issue for everyone."

A Gov. Mitch Daniels-commissioned report on BP's permit chided IDEM, saying, "Neither the fact sheet that accompanied the permit nor the responses to public comments on the draft permit clearly explain the rationale" for the compliance schedule.

The schedules last the five-year length of a permit and are usually accompanied by a timeline to achieve other, more easily reached limits.

However, the same report noted that unlike Illinois and Michigan, Indiana has a firm prohibition against new or increased discharges of mercury and other toxic substances that accumulate in fish and pose a health risk to those who eat the fish.

Officials at U.S. Steel defend their permit, saying properly researching and testing mercury-limiting tools "warrants the five years" of a variance, or exception to the mercury rule.

What's worse, they ask: five years of adhering to a less-than-ideal, but realistic limit or consistently violating a perceived unreachable one?

"Our final end game goal is to be 100 percent compliant," U.S. Steel water compliance manager Mardanna Soto said.

IDEM also granted a five-year mercury compliance schedule in 2007 to Cargill, a starch and sweetener producer based in Hammond.

In total, nearly half of the top 15 industrial dischargers on Lake Michigan have been allowed either an extension to reach the federal limit, or an exception from federal limits altogether, a Times investigation shows.

Michigan granted variances, or exceptions to federal limits, to International Paper in Quinnesec, Mich., what is now Verso Paper, and Escanaba Paper Company in Escanaba, Mich., what is now part of NewPage Corporation; Wisconsin allowed Thilmany Paper a compliance schedule, or a five-year extension

Illinois' Frevert said regulating mercury is not as difficult an issue for his state, as Illinois no longer has much industry discharging directly to Lake Michigan.

"But if we had to meet those numbers, we'd have the same problems as Indiana," Frevert said.

Of the strict federal limits on mercury discharges, Frevert says, "I think they're unattainable. Why don't you just admit going in that we can't meet it?"

Steve Casey, district water bureau supervisor for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, calls the mercury rule "a heck of a tough standard to meet.

"It's difficult, and I anticipate we're going to bump up against it someday," Casey said. "We just haven't yet."

Permit backlogs

Something all Great Lakes states say they've bumped up against is a logjam of outdated wastewater discharge permits. Large pile-ups often lead regulators to extend permits instead of revamping and renewing them.

Critics ripped IDEM last summer for years of extending major permits, including one for U.S. Steel. Extending the permits, environmentalists cried, allows companies to run under antiquated quality rules that are not as protective of water.

But Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan all reported either a current or past problem with backlogged permits.

One source of backlogs is a lack of personnel. High turnover equals slow permitting.

"It's incredibly tedious, boring work," Illinois' Frevert said of permit writing. It can be a time-consuming struggle to find people and train them on each state's standards, he said.

Wisconsin has a "storied history" of permit backlogs, said Duane Schuettpelz, water resources manager for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

In the 1990s, the agency had a "fairly significant" pile-up of wastewater permits, up to 50 percent outdated, Schuettpelz said. The agency later implemented a data management system that helped streamline the permitting process.

Though the Wisconsin DNR has been below 10 percent since 1997, he said, "we've been creeping up recently" to higher than 11 percent.

About 12 years ago, Michigan struggled with a backlog as well.

"We made a real effort to get everyone current," Casey said, adding that nowadays, the MDEQ is nearly always up to date.

NPDES PERMITS AND THEIR WATCHDOGS

Illinois:

Individual permits: 2,000

Compliance staff: 40-50

Indiana:

Individual permits: 1,500

Compliance staff: 15-18

Michigan:

Individual permits: 1,600

Compliance staff: 30

Wisconsin:

Individual permits: 1,300

Compliance staff: 30-40

In some states and under certain circumstances, permit writers also act as compliance officers.

(Source: Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality)

COMPLIANCE VS. VARIANCE

What's the difference?

Compliance schedule -- a negotiated agreement between the government and a pollution discharger detailing dates and methods by which the discharger will meet an environmental regulation.

Variance -- a government-allowed delay or whole exception to an environmental rule or guideline.

(Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)