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BY BRENDAN O'SHAUGHNESSY
boshaughnessy@nwitimes.com
317.637.9078 | Tuesday, December 14, 2004 | (No comments posted.)
THE PINES | The water looked like iced tea and smelled like rotten eggs.
In a scene fit for a movie, Gordon Tharp invited four environmental bureaucrats and an industry executive to drink tap water from the well on his property that they said was not contaminated. When they declined, Tharp's trap was sprung.
"I don't understand why my water isn't good enough for you, but it's good enough for me," he said.
Tucked into the shadow of the Dunes National Lakeshore, this town of about 800 in northeast Porter County has become a nationwide symbol of how power plant waste can contaminate drinking water. Some local residents have unwillingly become experts in the complex scientific world of water quality and government regulations in the four years since they discovered high levels of toxic metals in many wells.
The water nightmare for The Pines residents, which has prompted some to use bottled water even to brush their teeth, also illustrates the value of the country's largest fresh water supply -- the Great Lakes. Their struggle is made more painful by how close they live to Lake Michigan.
Just two miles away, the lake sits at the far end of a multimillion-dollar construction project that recently brought Michigan City water to many residents. The lake's geological history also contributed a sandy soil to the region that makes it easier for pollutants to seep into aquifers, which serve as natural groundwater storage.
Many people in the Calumet region rely on groundwater supplies and some of them prefer it to treated water out of Lake Michigan. But when problems arise over quantity or quality, the lake provides a comforting backup plan.
In a region saturated with industrial history, experts predict that clean and reliable water could become as valuable as steel was to the past.
The eight states and two Canadian provinces surrounding the Great Lakes now are crafting an agreement to manage this vast resource and protect its future. The process is not without controversy.
Some interests say the plan goes too far by limiting industrial growth and slowing development for towns on the border of the basin line that bisects the region. Others say the plan doesn't go far enough in requiring conservation measures and restricting who can use the water.
For Pines resident Jan Nona, access to Lake Michigan water is far more personal. She said taking the first drink of lake-fed tap water a month ago was simply a relief.
"People have been drinking contaminated water for over a decade in Pines," Nona said. "Something has gone terribly wrong here."
How this small town has qualified as a Superfund site for the nation's worst environmental disasters provides a story of caution for the region.
Fly ash dumped in landfill, town
For the past two decades at least, the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. disposed of fly ash -- what's left over after burning coal -- in a nearby landfill. Industry representatives call fly ash a byproduct and have found uses for it in making concrete and roofing material.
Because the black sand looks like harmless dirt, it also was used decades ago as fill material for low-lying areas and for constructing roads and driveways in town. Nona said it has shiny specks in it from the residue metals in coal and feels scratchy in the throat on dry days.
Environmentalists call fly ash a toxic waste product and are convinced it has leaked dangerous chemicals into the shallow aquifer that Pines residents use for their drinking water. Wells in town have tested well beyond legal limits for boron, manganese, molybdenum, arsenic, benzene and lead -- all of which can severely harm health at high levels.
Cathi Murray, a teacher from Pines, worries her 9-year-old's hearing impairment or the rare bowel disorder her 11-year-old was born with could be connected to the water she drank during her pregnancies.
"I was drinking water from the wells and walking fly ash roads every day," Murray said. "How did that affect my daughters? It's something we'll always wonder about and never know."
A 2002 report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry confirms the concern, finding that the town's groundwater "poses a significant threat to children's health." Murray said utility diggers in the playground at Town Hall have reported fly ash 4-feet thick.
Several residents, who formed a group called People In Need of Environmental Safety say state and federal agencies have tried to do a minimal fix in the worst areas. Nona said sample testing a third of the homes is not enough, but the Environmental Protection Agency said testing every well is unnecessary and cost prohibitive.
In an unofficial test obtained by the group, one home the EPA deemed safe showed boron levels eight times the federal standard. Health experts link boron to damage to the stomach, liver and brain, as well as miscarriages.
Ken Thiesen, the EPA's project coordinator for the site, said the agency has done everything it can to protect residents with affected wells. He said the EPA began work in 2002, and 270 of about 340 homes will have Michigan City water from Lake Michigan by the end of the year, while the rest immediately received bottled water.
"This project is ongoing," Thiesen said. "For a government agency to move that fast is warp speed."
Pines problem reveals risk nearby
Brian Wright, coal policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council, said Indiana officials have yet to recognize the health risks posed by coal waste. While neighboring states have created tough standards for disposing of fly ash, Indiana still doesn't require waterproof liners for these landfills, he said.
State officials have called the Pines situation an isolated incident. But already, four of 43 wells in Beverly Shores and the Dunes National Lakeshore have tested too high for boron levels. The EPA's Thiesen said he thinks it's a natural occurrence unrelated to The Pines.
The anticipated cost of bringing lake water to Beverly Shores is more than $7 million. Members of the local environmental group suspect ditches are running stormwater into Lake Michigan itself, where the toxic damage could be incalculable.
Indiana regulated the Pines landfills where local hauling company Brown Inc. dumped fly ash from NIPSCO's Bailly and Michigan City power generation plants.
Despite official records questioning the suitability of the site, the town's partially unlined Yard 520 landfill is estimated to have received more than a million tons of fly ash before it stopped accepting new waste in 2001.
NIPSCO and Brown entered into an agreement with the EPA to pay for bottled water and the $4 million to connect homes to a water main from Michigan City.
The agreement is not considered an admission of responsibility.
Nona and Murray, with help from environmental groups, have sued NIPSCO to force more thorough testing, cleanup and city water for every home in the area. Yellow "No Water" signs dot yards the EPA has left out of the contamination zone, and some residents feel stuck in homes that would be tough to sell.
Environmentalists say The Pines is not alone in facing a risk from fly ash, pointing to 74 cases in 23 states where they believe it has contaminated drinking water. Nationwide, 60 percent of electricity comes from about 426 coal-burning power plants, which are prevalent in Indiana.
After approximately 900 million tons of coal are burned each year, the plants report releasing more than 250 million pounds of toxic chemicals in the form of ash, according to the 2001 Toxics Release Inventory. The more than 100 million tons of ash produced annually could stack 11 miles high on a football field.
More than half of all Americans live within 30 miles of coal-fired power plants, according to the Clean Air Task Force. This environmental group published a pamphlet this year about the fight for clean water in Pines, calling it a "lesson of failed environmental policies" that should "inspire action, not just in Town of Pines, but nationally."
Says Jeff Stant, a coal consultant for the group: "This is your water, your town, and you have to fight for it."
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