In a letter to the company, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management said ArcelorMittal has made a practice of redoing tests that showed violations, and using the new tests to replace those results, sometimes after they already had been reported to the state.
“This practice is not allowable,” IDEM Deputy Director Rick Massoels wrote in the letter.
Steelmaker ArcelorMittal accused of manipulating its required test results in the wake of the toxic spill that killed about 3,000 fish near Burns Harbor, Indiana facility. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/dld3P3IEVD
— Megan Hickey (@MeganHickeyTV) January 7, 2020
State authorities said the practice “undermines the integrity” of the test results ArcelorMittal submits.
“If ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor maintains that it cannot credibly report noncompliant results based upon one analysis of a given sample (that passes all quality assurance/quality control checks), then IDEM cannot feel confident in compliant results reported by ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor that are based on one analysis of a given sample (that passes all quality assurance/quality control checks),” Massoels wrote. “ArcelorMittal’s self-monitoring program is either capable of generating valid results based upon one analysis of a given sample or it is not.”
State inspectors say NW Indiana steelmaker tried to redo test results for ammonia and cyanide that were unsatisfactory.
“The practice undermines the integrity of compliant results” IDEM said in a letter to the company dated Jan. 6. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/jvBw6lhior
— Megan Hickey (@MeganHickeyTV) January 7, 2020
IDEM noted other tests at the plant found unacceptable amounts of ammonia and cyanide in water discharged from one of the plant’s outfalls. ArcelorMittal also has been unable to determine the source of the cyanide and ammonia coming from that outfall.
“There are concerns that an unpermitted wastewater stream is entering Lake Michigan,” Massoels wrote.
ArcelorMittal representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the letter from IDEM.
In August, around 3,000 fish in the Little Calumet River were killed by a cyanide and ammonia spill from the plant. The river feeds into Lake Michigan.
In October, a report from IDEM revealed ArcelorMittal missed warning signs a week before the spill.
The state accused ArcelorMittal of committing seven violations of its permit – including for the spill itself, failing to promptly notify the state, failure to properly maintain the plant, and failing to minimize the effect of the spill.
The October report from IDEM said there were warning signs more than a week before the spill, when a water-damaged battery system failed on Aug. 4.
The report said “there was no alarm in place to alert operators that the battery ceased recharging.”
That same battery system had more problems on Aug. 11, causing more equipment failures and, ultimately, the spill of hundreds of pounds of cyanide over the next few days.
The steel giant didn’t mention the equipment problems to the state until Aug. 14, and even then, the company told the state it “did not believe that the issue was impacting its discharges.”
The company finally reported the spill to the state on Aug. 15. ArcelorMittal told CBS 2 in August that it didn’t tell the state right away because they were waiting on definitive test results.
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ArcelorMittal Steel Plant In Indiana Accused Of Manipulating Test Results In Wake Of Chemical Spill - CBS Chicago
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