IDEM approves Maya Energy air permit renewal
- devoremolly
- Jul 15, 2023
- 5 min read
Published in the Times of Northwest Indiana
May 7, 2022
GARY — The one-story Steel City Academy building buzzed with students returning from field trips, speeding to class and dreaming about summer. As the Gary charter school prepares to graduate its third batch of seniors, Executive Director Katie Kirley is also getting ready for another transition — having to relocate.
Just a few years after opening its doors in 2016, Steel City began to oppose Maya Energy LLC, the waste processing facility looking to locate less than 100 feet away from the school. Buses of kids showed up to city council meetings, Kirley met with local leaders and students even recorded a podcast detailing the struggle.
"Why is it a project that is acceptable in Gary and why is a project that is acceptable in Gary across from a school? This would not be allowed in more affluent communities. Our kids do not deserve that to be their school experience," Kirley said. "I won't lead a school that is across from a facility like this."
Though Maya ultimately got all the required permitting and approvals, the land across from Steel City remained vacant, with nothing but a "Coming Soon Maya Energy LLC" sign standing behind the phragmites along 35th Avenue.
Then on April 26, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management approved Maya Energy's air permit renewal request. Now the fight has rekindled and educators, environmentalists, residents and politicians are prepared to battle.
Not a dumping ground
The $50 million facility — proposed for 2727 W. 35th Ave. — would take in municipal waste and construction/demolition material from contractors and waste haulers in Lake County and the Chicago area. The facility would process up to 2,400 tons — or 4.8 million pounds — of waste per day, though hazardous waste would not be allowed at the site, according to previous Times reports.
The waste would be sorted and treated, and recovered plastics, cardboard, paper, glass and metals would be transferred off site for recycling.
Usable wood and combustible municipal solid waste would be processed and transferred via truck haulers for resale as fuel or for recycling. Unusable MSW and construction and demolition materials would be transferred to a landfill for disposal, according to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
Maya has faced criticism from the Gary Common Council, which rescinded its support of the project in late 2019, citing alleged misinformation about project scope, only to later reverse course, again, in the face of a lawsuit.
Maya's air permit was first approved by IDEM in 2017, but after five years it had to be renewed. In March of 2022 IDEM held a public hearing where over a dozen speakers opposed the renewal. Many cited concerns about bringing waste into the city, increased air pollutants, truck traffic, student safety, the nearby well and the general lack of available information about the project.
Mayor Jerome Prince opposes the project and said since taking office in 2019, he has had very little communication with James Ventura, Maya project lead and former East Chicago city councilman.
"Last year I believe we removed about 2,400 tons of items that were dumped (in Gary) and that is not your regular mainstream waste, that is just dumping, and so with that I would be really hard-pressed to encourage that type of development in the city," Prince said. "The proposed project area is of concern ... having a garbage processing facility adjacent to an area that we want to one day realize as a recreational area."
With the site near the banks of the Little Calumet River and surrounded by wetlands, many who oppose Maya say the project could contaminate important greenspace.
Just south of Chase Street and 35th Avenue sits an artesian well. Bubbling out of a PVC pipe set into an old block of concrete, the spot has been a valuable water source for decades. Dan Repay, executive director of the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission, said dating back to the 1950s, residents would get water from the well while farming.
With it set back a few feet from the road, Repay said access has become more difficult over the years. That is why the commission is going to install a small driveway leading up to the well and add a pier overlooking a nearby mitigation site. The project will cost about $400,000 and will start later this spring, Repay said.
The commission also owns the land where Maya hopes to locate.
The commission has a lease agreement with Maya. Repay said as long as Maya is able to get all of the necessary permits and zoning approvals, the commission is not concerned about the project.
Kay Westhues, a South Bend photographer who has created a website detailing the oral history of the well, said the waste processing facility will undoubtedly impact the area.
"I don't understand why they are making a public park for the spring and putting in a waste processor less than a mile from away," Westhues said. "I've never been around a recycling center that does not have trash blowing around it ... and there is the danger of it polluting the aquifer."
Appeals
IDEM received ample public comment opposing the air permit renewal, including a letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The letter outlines several issues, namely that Gary is already considered an environmental justice community.
The EPA included a list of recommendations, including that IDEM conduct an environmental analysis and and environmental justice screen which would account for the existing industry that already impacts residents. The EPA also asked that IDEM factor emissions from truck traffic into the air permit.
“They (IDEM) are not taking into account the legacy and current conditions that people are subjected to," said Dorreen Carey, a representative with Gary Advocates for Responsible Development, or GARD. "Our message is that we don’t want other people’s garbage or polluting industries."
GARD is appealing the renewal on the grounds that the permit should have been revoked in 2019 after Maya failed to meet the permit construction conditions. According to IDEM's virtual file cabinet, the company received a one-year construction extension on the permit in December of 2018. However, no construction occurred within the one-year window.
In the approval of the permit renewal, IDEM said "a satisfactory showing was made to justify Maya Energy's delay in commencing construction." Maya cited delays in getting the solid waste permit and the economic impact of COVID-19 as reasons for the lack of construction.
The Prince administration is also working on appealing IDEM's decision.
GARD representative Kimmie Gordon said a big part of the issue is IDEM's process for notifying impacted communities. By the time residents are aware of projects it is often too late.
“When these establishments come for approval it is done so stealthily and so quickly that we continue to end up in a situation where we are voicing our opinions and opposing things after the fact," Gordon said. “One of the main portions of environmental justice is meaningful involvement of the people that it effects. We rightfully deserve to know the details of a project prior to it hitting the table at the Gary Common Council chambers."
All petitions must be filed within 18 days of IDEM's ruling, meaning both the city and GARD have less than a week to complete their appeals.
For now, Prince said he will just have to watch for IDEM's response and "see what happens."
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