— Environmentalists are questioning why the public wasn’t notified about an October chemical spill into a Lake Michigan tributary that U.S. Steel asked Indiana regulators to keep confidential. Documents released by the University of Chicago’s Abrams Environmental Law Clinic show that U.S. Steel’s plant in Portage, Indiana, released 56.7 pounds (25.7 kilograms) of chromium on Oct. 25 after a wastewater treatment system malfunction. That’s nearly double what the plant is permitted to release of the potentially cancer-causing chemical over 24 hours. The October spill wasn’t serious enough to merit reporting “and did not pose any danger to water supply or human health,” U.S. Steel said. The Indiana environmental agency is reviewing whether proper notification procedures were followed, but excessive chemical releases typically don’t require spill notifications, spokesman Barry Sneed said.

Source: National Post November 15, 2017 16:52 UTC