New state waste policy expected to stop cleanup costs

INDIANAPOLIS -- State environmental officials are preparing a new policy that would allow some hazardous waste spills to be left without cleanup if they pose no threat to human health.\nManufacturers and state officials consider the policy a common sense approach, but environmentalists worry it could eliminate incentives for businesses to avoid spilling hazardous waste.\nCurrently, any amount of waste listed as hazardous by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must be completely removed from a spill area. The soil is sent to a hazardous waste disposal site, a process that can be expensive, said Bruce Palin, a deputy assistant commissioner with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.\nThe standards will allow some spills to go without cleanup as long as the pollution is within levels thought to be safe for residential areas.\nIf soil contamination meets those standards but is below industrial standards, the tainted soil could be sent to a solid waste landfill instead of a hazardous waste landfill, Palin said.\nThe state Solid Waste Board will hold a public hearing on the new policy Sept. 17. The policy will automatically take effect 30 days later.\nThe policy is aimed primarily at waste spilled by companies, and does not apply to intentional dumping, Palin told The Indianapolis Star for a story Tuesday.\nBusinesses may be fined if they do not report a spill. Whether they are fined for the spill itself is determined on a case-by-case basis, but most fines result from spills that enter a waterway or result in fish kills.\nThe policy avoids the expense of excavating and removing material that might not be harmful, and recognizes that "just because you spilled doesn't mean the soil is toxic," Palin said.\nPatrick Bennett, director of environmental affairs for the Indiana Manufacturers Association, said if an industrial site was unlikely to be used for any other purpose, it did not make sense to clean it up to residential standards.\nEnvironmentalists worry that Indiana's policy goes beyond addressing existing pollution. It could make it easy for industries to contaminate a site and then avoid cleanup responsibility, said Rae Schnapp, water policy director at the Hoosier Environmental Council.\n"Generally speaking, I think risk-based approaches make sense for prioritizing cleanup of sites that are already contaminated," she said. "But my big concern is that it is going to allow future contamination. I'm afraid it will give them an out if they're careless, with no incentive to be careful"