IDEM releases findings on fish kill

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has concluded that new state regulations wouldn't have prevented the White River fish kill last December.\n"We think the existing laws are sound and effective," said Tim Method, IDEM deputy commissioner.\nThe department released a six-page report Thursday, ordered by the General Assembly to know what new laws could reduce the likelihood of another ecological disaster. State lawmakers, who will be back in session Jan. 8, hoped the report would provide insight on how to better respond to such situations.\n"The objective of calling for the report was getting IDEM to do a self-examination and flush out any problems they had and hope they are not repeated," said state Rep. Jim Atterholt, R-Indianapolis, who wrote the legislation.\nAlthough the report was supposed to be "comprehensive," Atterholt regards it as a success in spite of its brevity.\n"It's a step in the right direction," he said.\nThe fish kill, which left 117 tons of dead fish, unfolded last December in Madison County, which lies just northeast of Indianapolis. An unknown pollutant passed through the Anderson wastewater treatment plant, spreading more than 50 miles through three counties.\n Around Christmas, IDEM commissioner Lori Kaplan said the department believed the contamination came from a chemical discharge at Guide Corp., an automotive parts manufacturer. Given the high levels of ammonia detected in the river, IDEM traced it back to a metal-finishing chemical used at the Guide plant.\n By April, the state of Indiana and the Environmental Protection Agency had filed separate suits against Guide, which are still pending.\nSince then, the state Department of Natural Resources has stocked the river with 1,937 adult game fish to spawn and plans on restocking it with more than 300,000 bass, bluegills crappies and catfish. Not-for-profit environmental organizations will fund the effort. Biologists will continue to survey the river to see if more fish should be added.\nThe report ends with a 24-page appendix, including 17 pages outlining a written protocol for response to future environmental crises.\nDuring the fish kill, IDEM drew criticism for failing to announce the problem until nearly two weeks had passed. Health officials in downriver Anderson County first learned of the problem from reporters inquiring about dead fish washing up on shore.\nAs for policy recommendations, the report calls for the state to play a larger role in regulating industrial wastewater pretreatment plants. Currently, federal environmental authorities oversee the regulation.\nSpecifically, the report proposes that IDEM staffers dealing with pretreatment operators be increased from two to six. But the report cautions that stepped-up local monitoring of pretreatment operators "will not guarantee that incidents such as occurred on on the White River in December 1999 will not happen again"