Latest news with #LisaVallee
Chicago Tribune
01-08-2025
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
JTWNI, GARD join EarthJustice, other groups in legal action against EPA
Two Northwest Indiana community groups have joined EarthJustice to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency's actions to delay air pollution compliance in steel mills. 'The 2024 air standards — hard-won safeguards for fenceline communities — are being stripped away, as the agency grants emissions exemptions to steel mills and eliminates public input,' Lisa Vallee, organizing director of Just Transition Northwest Indiana, said in a Wednesday news release. 'This is environmental injustice: they are sacrificing our communities, gutting our social safety nets, and taking away our future. We will not stay silent.' Earlier this month, the EPA issued a final rule delaying air pollution protections for communities near steel mills, according to the Federal Register. Current rules have required steel mills to reduce emissions since last April, but the agency's new action delays compliance until April 2027, allowing pollution to continue at current levels. According to EarthJustice, the EPA published the final rule without notice, which did not allow the public to object to the extension before it went into effect. EarthJustice is a San Francisco-based nonprofit public interest environmental law organization that works with community groups nationwide. EarthJustice Senior Attorney Adrienne Lee said in a Wednesday news release that it's alarming for the EPA to delay protections without first accepting public input. The action is also inconsistent with the agency's responsibility to human health and the environment, Lee said. 'Communities living near steel mills in states such as Indiana and Pennsylvania deserve better,' she said. 'Each year, steel mills expose these communities to hundreds of tons of toxic air pollution which places them at increased risk of developing cancer and a variety of chronic health conditions.' An October report from Industrious Labs found that most residents in Gary are in the top 10% nationally for being most at-risk for developing asthma and at-risk of low life expectancy. In 2020, Indiana had a lung cancer rate of 72.5 per 100,000 people, with Lake County as one of the state's counties with the highest cancer mortality rates, according to the American Lung Association. A 2016 JAMA Network report also found Gary as one of the top five U.S. cities with the lowest life expectancy at one point. The EPA declined to comment on the legal action, saying in an email that it's longstanding practice not to comment on current or pending litigation. Dorreen Carey, president of Gary Advocates for Responsible Development, said in the news release that EPA's actions fail to protect Gary and surrounding Northwest Indiana communities' residents. Carey called out U.S. Steel's Gary Works facility specifically, saying pollutants have led to increased health issues in the city. 'The current outmoded and insufficient methods of hazardous air emission monitoring and control at Gary Works are not protective of human health and the environment,' Carey said. 'Residents must have a voice in EPA decisions and rulemaking and EPA must do its job to protect the residents and the natural resources of Gary…' A U.S. Steel spokesperson responded to the action in a statement Thursday. 'Environmental stewardship is a core value at U.S. Steel, and we remain committed to the safety of our communities as do our more than 3,400 Gary Works employees,' the statement said. JTNWI and GARD have previously expressed concerns with U.S. Steel's application for two-year exemptions from hazardous air pollutant rules for integrated iron and steel, coke and taconite iron ore process, according to Post-Tribune archives. U.S. Steel previously told the Post-Tribune in a statement that it challenged all three rules because they were not supported by science or law and would impose significant costs while setting technically unachievable standards. Seeking these exemptions doesn't mean U.S. Steel isn't 'supportive of revisions to regulations that are within (the EPA's) statutory authority, based on sound science and are technically feasible,' according to Post-Tribune archives. In March, the EPA announced corporations could apply for presidential exemptions to sections of the Clean Air Act. Exemption applications were due March 31, and if approved, can be extended for up to two additional years. 'Northwest Indiana is already home to some of the worst air pollution in this country,' a previous JTNWI statement said. 'In this region, we suffer from a cumulative, generational impact of exposure to industrial toxins in communities like Lake County, Indiana. These exemptions are a free pass for these polluters at the continued cost of our health and safety. We're adamantly opposed to this astonishing reversal of environmental law in no uncertain terms. Our communities and region are not expendable sacrifice zones for this administration or corporations.'
Chicago Tribune
02-07-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
BP refinery sets off flares Tuesday night
At about 10 p.m. Tuesday, Lisa Vallee noticed flares coming from BP's Whiting refinery. 'Obviously, we're used to seeing smokestacks with the flames on it,' the Whiting resident said, 'but this was a very, very large flame with huge plumes of black smoke coming from it.' 'The BP Whiting refinery is currently experiencing conditions that require materials to be burned in its flares,' the email said. 'We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our neighbors.' Nearby residents received an identical message through the Lake County alert system. Normal operations had resumed at the refinery Wednesday morning, according to a BP Facebook post at about 8:30 a.m. 'The Whiting Refinery has returned to normal operations following a short flaring event,' the Facebook post said. 'We apologize for any inconvenience.' Vallee lives close enough to the refinery that she was worried she might have to evacuate the area if it was dangerous. She and her partner prepared to evacuate but never did. Vallee said she lives about a mile away from the refinery. 'From where we live, we can't normally see the flames unless they're really high,' Vallee said. 'You could just see, looking out our apartment window, the whole sky was going orange from flames shooting at the facility.' Vallee listened to a police scanner to try to get more information, and she heard people from around Lake County calling about the flares. She also saw Whiting Fire Department trucks drive toward the BP facility, which Vallee said was concerning. 'We know that when they're burning off products, that's still going in the air, and they're having to burn it off because something is going wrong,' she added. 'I've not heard anything today about what might have been the actual issue; usually it's something that's discovered days later.' Residents can't ignore the flares when they're that large, Vallee said Wednesday. 'You get this sense of dread and doom,' she added. In mid-November, BP started and finished a planned flare at the Whiting refinery. Flares are a safety device used to help the refinery safely manage excess gases during maintenance or operational disruptions, BP previously said. In January 2024, the oil refinery was hit by a power outage that required the company to shut down the facility and evacuate workers, according to the Associated Press, which led BP to flare its stacks. A BP spokesperson did not comment on the reason behind Tuesday's flare or if employees had to evacuate. The Whiting refinery has more than 1,300 employees and 1,400 contractors, according to BP's website. The refinery provides gas to Midwestern states and can produce enough fuel each day to support the average daily travel of more than 7 million cars.
