Groups Call Upon the EPA to Update Indiana's Environmental Law Policy on Clean Water

Indianapolis, INReflecting growing concerns over the state's water pollution control program, a group of three green advocacy agencies are petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to revise the state's environmental policy law or turn its control over to private organizations.

span itemprop="image" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" style="display:block">The Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC), the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC) and the Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter claim that the state's environmental policy has failed to properly administer and enforce wastewater permits issued to industrial, municipal and other facilities.

"The bottom line is that we want the agency to do its job to protect the state's waters. This is not just about environmentalists being critical of a state agency - this is about concerns about public health and water quality impact," said Rae Schnapp, the water policy director of the HEC, to the Associated Press.

Schnapp and her associates claim that more than 800 rivers and streams in Indiana are classified as impaired and do not meet the EPA imposed standards of mercury, PCBS from industrial pollution, E.coli bacteria from human and animal waste and algae and nutrients related to area farms.