Activists object as IDEM moves to permit drum shredder

Calumet College of St. Joseph's main academic building is shown.

Environmental advocates representing an array of groups voiced concerns over the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's plans to modify an air permit issued to East Chicago's Tradebe Treatment and Recycling facility at a meeting held Wednesday night at Calumet College of St. Joseph.

The meeting came as the company seeks to get a whistleblower lawsuit filed against it in August dismissed by a federal judge.

Tradebe, whose East Chicago facility is located on Kennedy Avenue, stores, processes and recycles petroleum products and other forms of hazardous waste from a variety of industries. The company currently has two pending permit applications with IDEM, a renewal of, and modification to, its hazardous waste management operating permit and a modification to its air permit. The two permits are handled separately by IDEM's Offices of Land and Water Quality, respectively.

The draft hazardous waste permit modification includes plans for a $15 million expansion to Tradebe's facility on an adjacent lot owned by the company.

The draft modification for Tradebe's air permit includes permission to operate a chemical drum shredder that has been operating without proper permitting at the facility since its installation in 2004. In January, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that Tradebe had violated the 1970 Clean Air Act by failing to identify the shredder as a source of airborne emissions in a 2021 permit application submitted to IDEM.

The shredder recycles used chemical drums considered "empty" in accordance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) meaning that for standard-sized drums, no more than 3% by weight of the total capacity of the container remains inside. IDEM Office of Air Quality Permits Branch chief Jenny Acker told attendees of Wednesday's meeting that Tradebe staff take further steps to ensure that the drums are cleaned out before shredding.

"They do open those drums. They scrape and drain everything that they can out," Acker said.

The company's two decades of drum shedding took center stage during Wednesday's meeting, with activists urging IDEM's permitting staff to weigh that history in its final decision on the permit.

Around two dozen advocates, representing the University of Chicago's Abrams Environmental Law Clinic (AELC), the Environmental Law and Policy Center, Gary Advocates for Responsible Development, and Just Transition Northwest Indiana (JTNWI), in addition to other local community members. Many of those in attendance also brought similar concerns to a public meeting held by IDEM in September regarding the hazardous waste permit renewal and modification.

JTNWI Legislative and Policy Director Susan Thomas likened granting approval to the drum shredder to rewarding a truant teen with "a new game console, a bottle of tequila and the keys to the car."

Tradebe faces potential enforcement action from IDEM over its failure to list the drum shredder as a source of airborne emissions on permitting documents. The agency's Air Compliance and Enforcement Branch, which works separately from the permitting branch, is currently reviewing Tradebe's noncompliance. IDEM Communications Director Allen Carter told The Times that the agency cannot comment on the likely outcome of the process, which could take years to complete.

Acker stressed, however, that past or future violations at Tradebe's East Chicago facility do not directly bear on her office's permitting decisions. IDEM's Permits and Enforcement branches operate separately.

Amid of criticism from environmental activists, Tradebe has also received some expressions of support from local nonprofits. In September, both Tina Gunnumm, food pantry manager for the Catholic Charities of Indiana, and Mike Jessen, CEO of Boys and Girls Club of Greater Northwest Indiana, wrote to IDEM in support of the company's hazardous waste permit renewal and modification. Both organizations have partnered with Tradebe on programming and charitable efforts.

Tradebe staff did not participate in Wednesday's meeting. A company spokesperson did not respond to a question about whether Tradebe plans to grant a request made by the AELC for additional meetings. Company staff held a series of public meetings related to the hazardous waste permitting process last year.

On Aug. 1, former Tradebe employee Kevin Swanson sued the company over alleged violations of the Indiana False Claims and Whistleblower Protection Act. Swanson claimed that he was fired from his role as a tank farm supervisor after reporting "high mercury levels" and other safety concerns to his superiors.

In written comments on Tradebe's hazardous waste permit renewal, the AELC cited Swanson's lawsuit among "additional reasons for concern," regarding how the facility has been run.

The Tradebe spokesperson wrote that the company has "investigated the (lawsuit's) claims and determined that they are wholly without merit." Tradebe's attorney moved to dismiss the case on Oct. 9, claiming that Swanson failed to support his claim to whistleblower protections. The court now awaits a response from the plaintiff.

Acker said that the pending litigation "does not impact my job, which is to look at what we have, to do the calculations, to do a technical analysis, to do a legal analysis and say, 'if I issue this permit, and the source complies with the requirements surrounding the (RCRA empty) drum shredder, will they be in compliance with state, federal law and the Clean Air Act?'"

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