La Porte County BZA denies injection facility petition 

LA PORTE, Ind. -- The La Porte County Board of Zoning unanimously denied a petition for a special exemption for a non-hazardous wastewater treatment and injection facility five to zero Tuesday evening.

Dozens and dozens of community members packed the La Porte County Complex for the meeting, with a large majority of the crowd clearing out after that vote was made.

Milestone Environmental Services, an industrial waste handling and disposal service company, were the petitioners of the project.

They were asking La Porte County for a special exemption to create a deep injection well in Kingsbury Industrial Park. They explained the wells are used to permanently isolate fluids from the environment, taking industrial waste you wouldn’t want in surface water and permanently injecting it into a space thousands of feet into the ground.

If the petition was approved, the project was looking to inject up to 500,000 gallons of industrial fluid into the ground on a daily basis. The class of well would have been for non-hazardous materials such as oily waters, light metal-bearing fluids, water-based paints and more.

It would not have included things like radioactive waste and the petitioners, including vice president for Milestone, Michael Lamb, explained they were looking at the location in La Porte County because within 50 miles of the potential well location, there is 50 million gallons of wastewater per year that is either treated or shipped off site.

“We see this as an area that is attractive because of the need for a more modern and sustainable disposal option than what’s currently in this area,” said Lamb.

However, many residents believe there would still be hazards to the community if the project was not denied unanimously.

“I feel like the county’s been inundated with data centers and other buildings and I feel like this… proposal also had a lot of concerns from residents with hazardous waste and non-hazardous waste getting injected into the earth… how it can affect local wildlife and residents… seemed like a really bad idea for the county seeing that they were saying there’s many, many other wells in the area. Michigan City’s got three, Valparaiso’s got a couple, Michigan’s got some, so it seemed like there’s plenty to… do what they need to treat,” said La Porte County resident, Jason Teets.

La Porte County commissioner, Joe Haney, attended the meeting to show support for his community after receiving dozens of calls and emails from residents sharing strong opposition to the project. He was also opposed to the petition and explained the community used their voice and presence to make a difference.

“One of the largest turnouts we’ve had for the BZA in regard to this and it’s exciting to see the community turn out. This is how folks can affect change in the community, is turning out, making those phone calls, sending your emails or letters and then showing up in person to the meetings, these are the important ways to do it,” said Haney.