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Public meeting scheduled 

EPA is having two public meetings 

about the five requests from 

ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor that the 

Agency is considering. 

The first is an informal open house 

where you will be able to talk with 

EPA officials and ask questions. 

The open house will be followed by a 

formal public hearing. At this hearing, 

you can make oral comments or submit 

a written statement for the record: 

Wednesday, March 24 

Open House – 3:30 to 6 p.m. 

Public Hearing – 7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Both meetings will be at: 

Northwestern Indiana Regional 

Planning Commission 

6100 Southport Road, Portage

Comments welcome 

EPA encourages comments on its 

proposal to approve ArcelorMittal’s 

requests. The comment period closes 

on April 7. 

Submit comments in writing to: 

Rebecca Harvey 

Water Division (WU-16J) 

EPA Region 5 

77 W. Jackson Blvd. 

Chicago, IL 60604-3590 

312-886-6594 

harvey.rebecca@epa.gov 

EPA Reviewing Requests for 

Renewals and New Permit

ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor LLC would be allowed to continue injecting 

hazardous waste deep beneath the earth’s surface if U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency Region 5 approves the company’s five pending requests. 

ArcelorMittal has three injection wells operating at 250 W. U.S. Highway 

12 in Burns Harbor. These wells inject waste from a steelmaking process 

known as “steel pickling” and waste ammonia liquor, a product of cokemaking. The wells are subject to two different federal environmental laws, 

the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery 

Act, or RCRA. Both laws regulate disposal of hazardous waste by 

underground injection. 

The Safe Drinking Water Act requires ArcelorMittal to have an 

underground injection control permit for each well. The company is seeking 

renewal of permits for its three existing wells and a new permit to construct 

and operate a fourth well. 

RCRA prohibits disposal of hazardous waste underground, so the company 

must also have what EPA calls a “land ban exemption.” To qualify for this 

exemption, a person or company must have a valid permit and demonstrate 

that injected waste will stay in place for as long as it remains hazardous. 

EPA granted ArcelorMittal a land ban exemption in 1990 but it must be 

reviewed periodically to ensure that the conditions under which it was 

granted are still valid. The company has requested renewal of its exemption. 

After reviewing ArcelorMittal’s requests, EPA found the company has 

shown that injected waste will stay in deep rock formations for at least 

10,000 years, and that it will not threaten any underground sources of 

drinking water. Therefore, Region 5 plans to grant ArcelorMittal’s request 

to renew the exemption and permits, as well as issue a fourth permit. 

 Map of the area where underground injection wells are located

ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor

Burns Harbor, Indiana February 2010 
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The permits would be valid for 10 years and the 

exemption until Dec. 31, 2027. 

Other regulatory actions 

In addition to the company’s five requests, there are 

three other environmental regulatory actions that 

involve the Burns Harbor facility. One of these actions 

is connected with the permit requests. 

Corrective Action

The draft UIC permits contain what EPA calls 

“corrective action requirements.” They are a result of 

investigations at the Burns Harbor facility during the 

1990s to identify any releases of hazardous materials at 

the site. EPA investigated 43 areas, requiring 

ArcelorMittal to take action in 20 of these areas since 

the studies began. EPA approved a final Corrective 

Measures Implementation Work Plan in 2006, which 

required controls on land use and ground water use. In 

an area identified as IA-1, EPA is requiring 

ArcelorMittal to monitor the ground water until 

benzene contamination has been cleaned up. A 

previous problem with toluene in that area has already 

been corrected. In an area identified as IA-3, groundwater monitoring will continue for up to three more 

years to demonstrate stability in contaminant levels. 

These corrective action requirements are included in 

the draft UIC permits because ArcelorMittal is not 

required to obtain any other RCRA permits. 

Landfill Permit Action

ArcelorMittal has applied for a solid waste landfill 

permit from Indiana Department of Environmental 

Management for its Deerfield Storage Facility. Because 

this new landfill will not contain any hazardous waste – 

as defined by RCRA – the permit must be issued by the 

state agency rather than EPA. This landfill has no 

connection with the underground injection wells. 

Material destined for this landfill will come from 

existing non-hazardous waste storage areas. 

NPDES Permit Action 

The company’s National Pollution Discharge 

Elimination System permits are up for renewal by 

IDEM. This renewal process is also a separate issue 

from the underground injection wells. 

EPA has oversight authority over IDEM in the landfill 

and NPDES permit actions. 

Technical information 

Contaminants 

Waste ammonia liquor is roughly 99 percent water with 

organic contaminants. The primary contaminant, as the 

name implies, is ammonia (2003 average concentration 

of 4,138 milligrams per liter; mg/L). 

Spent pickle liquor is generated as a byproduct of the 

steel sheet pickling operation. The continuous pickling 

operation uses a hydrochloric acid solution in a 

cascading (i.e., counter-current flow) system to remove 

scale and rust from the steel strip in preparation for 

further processing in the cold mill. The spent pickle 

liquor is about 87 percent water with hydrochloric acid 

and iron as ferrous chloride. The spent pickle liquor 

will also contain minor concentrations of other metals, 

such as chromium and nickel, typically present in the 

steel being processed. 

Geologic Suitability 

Wells of this type – which EPA calls Class I wells – 

must be in areas that are geologically suitable. 

ArcelorMittal provided geologic, hydrologic, 

geochemical and seismic information, in addition to 

test data and logs from the existing wells, to show that 

the facility is located at a geologically suitable site. 

Underground Sources of Drinking Water 

An underground source of drinking water, or USDW, is 

any aquifer or part of an aquifer that is being used, or 

can be used, as a source of drinking water and contains 

less than 10,000 mg/L of total dissolved solids. The 

base of the lowermost USDW is approximately 726 

feet below the surface. This water-bearing formation is 

known as the Brassfield Limestone. 

Hydrology and Geology 

These wells are injecting waste into the lower Mt. 

Simon Sandstone. The “injection interval” is between 

2,734 and 4,297 feet below the surface. The Mt. Simon 

Sandstone is separated from the lowermost USDW by 

approximately 2,000 feet of sedimentary rock 

composed of shale, limestone, sandstone and dolomite. 

Just above the injection interval is the “arrestment 

interval,” which lies between 2,180 and 2,734 feet 

below the surface. This layer of rock prevents the waste 

from moving up. There are no faults in the rock 

through which waste might seep upward. Over the 

arrestment interval is the “confining zone,” which is a 

244-foot thick zone of rock that provides additional 

protection. These formations extend for hundreds of 

square miles. 

Seismic Activity 

Indiana is an area of low earthquake risk. Midwestern 

earthquakes are infrequent, generally of low magnitude 

and have epicenters far below the injection interval. 

There is virtually no possibility of damage to the well 

or leakage of waste from the injection zone as a result 

of earthquakes. 
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Area of Review 

All Class I wells have an “area of review.” In this case, 

ArcelorMittal used an area that extends five miles from 

their three wells and from the nearby U.S. Steel 

Midwest Plant’s injection well. If there are other wells 

in the area of review that reach the injection zone, 

waste under pressure could contaminate supplies of 

drinking water by moving up through a well near the 

injection site, or through an abandoned well that was 

improperly plugged. ArcelorMittal’s petition shows 

there are five wells within the area of review. All five 

have been properly completed, plugged or abandoned, 

so a corrective action plan is not required. 

Annual Tests 

The injection wells must pass a pressure test and 

radioactive tracer survey every year and a temperature 

survey every 60 months to confirm that injected fluids 

cannot move upward along the well bore out of the 

injection zone. These tests demonstrate the mechanical 

integrity of a well’s long string casing, injection tubing, 

annular seal and bottom hole cement. All three wells 

passed these tests in June and July of 2009. 

Land Ban Modeling 

Finally, the 10,000-year post-operational period was 

modeled to predict the maximum vertical and 

horizontal movement of the waste. Because the 

ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel injection wells are so 

close, the model incorporated both sites. The maximum 

vertical distance the waste is predicted to move is 55 

feet, which is less than the 554-foot thickness of the 

arrestment interval. The prediction of maximum 

sideways movement is 5.87 miles from the injection 

well, but the nearest point of discharge into a USDW is 

greater than 10 miles from the facility. Therefore, 

ArcelorMittal has demonstrated that, to a reasonable 

degree of certainty, hazardous constituents will not 

migrate upward out of the injection zone or sideways to 

a point of discharge in 10,000 years. 

Well operational parameters 

Maximum Injection Pressure 

The maximum permitted injection pressure for the 

waste ammonia liquor wells is 977 pounds per square 

inch gauge and 699 psig for the spent pickle liquor 

well, based on previous operation of these wells. For 

the proposed fourth well, the maximum injection 

pressure in the permit is proposed to be 977 psig. 

However, during the drilling of the proposed well, the 

fracture gradient of the rocks at this location will be 

measured and the maximum permitted injection 

pressures adjusted to include this new information. If 

the fracture gradient is not measured within two years 

after the effective date of these permits, the maximum 

permitted injection pressure will be reduced to 720 psig 

for the existing waste ammonia liquor wells, 725 psig for 

the proposed waste ammonia liquor well and 344 psig for 

the spent pickle liquor well. 

Maximum Injection Rate 

The maximum injection rate for the combined injection 

of waste ammonia liquor is currently 240 gallons per 

minute calculated over one-month intervals. If the current 

petition for exemption from the restrictions of land 

disposal of hazardous waste is approved, the limit will be 

raised to 300 gallons per minute. The maximum injection 

rate for the injection of spent pickle liquor will be limited 

to 175 gallons per minute calculated over one-month 

intervals. 

Financial Assurance 

ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor LLC has demonstrated – by 

means of financial statement – adequate financial 

resources to plug and abandon these wells. This financial 

assurance must be updated and submitted to EPA on an 

annual basis. 

Conditions of petition approval 

The proposed renewal of the land ban exemption is 

subject to conditions. If ArcelorMittal does not comply, 

EPA may terminate the exemption or take enforcement 

action. ArcelorMittal must petition EPA for approval of 

any changes in the conditions. 

• The exemption applies to the existing injection 

wells, SPL #1, WAL #1, and WAL #2. 

• Injection is limited to that part of the lower Mt. 

Simon Sandstone between 2,734 and 4,297 feet 

feet below the surface. 

• Only waste from the steel pickling process or from 

the coke-making process may be injected. 

• Maximum concentration limits in the injection 

fluid at the well head are benzene 220 mg/L, 

chromium 133 mg/L, naphthalene 260 mg/L, 

nickel 50 mg/L, phenol 3,780 mg/L, pyridine 116 

mg/L and selenium 5 mg/L. 

• The minimum value of pH in the injection fluid at 

the well head is zero. 

• Annual injected volume must not exceed 

92,043,000 gallons for SPL #1 and 157,788,000 

gallons for WAL #1 and WAL #2 combined. 

• Exemption is approved for the 22-year modeled 

injection period, which ends Dec. 31, 2027. 

• ArcelorMittal must comply with UIC permits. 

• All regulatory requirements in Title 40 of the Code 

of Federal Regulations, Sections 148.23 and 

148.24 are incorporated by reference. 

• If EPA determines that the basis for approval of a 

petition may no longer be valid, EPA may 

terminate this exemption and will require a new 

demonstration. 
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For more information 

You can inspect the Administrative Record, including all data submitted by ArcelorMittal, at the Region 5 office in 

Chicago. Please contact William Bates (regarding the land ban exemption) or Stephen Roy (regarding the permits) 

for an appointment. You may also contact Bates if you would like a CD of the land ban exemption petition 

documents. 

William Bates Stephen Roy 

312-886-6110 312-886- 6556 

bates.william@epa.gov roy.stephen@epa.gov 

You may view the fact sheet, the draft permits and the draft land ban exemption at: 

Valparaiso Public Library 

103 Jefferson, Valparaiso 

Thomas Library 

200 W. Indiana Ave., Chesterton 

Or visit: www.epa.gov/region5/water/uic/uicpub.htm. 

Call Region 5 toll-free, 800-621-8431, weekdays, 

9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 
Two Meetings Scheduled on ArcelorMittal Requests 

Burns Harbor, Indiana 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold a formal public hearing on its proposal to 

approve five pending requests by ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor LLC. Approval would allow the 

company to continue injecting hazardous waste deep underground. An informal open house will 

precede the hearing. The meetings are on: 

Wednesday, March 24 

Open house: 3:30 – 6 p.m. 

Public Hearing: 7 – 8:30 p.m. 

Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission 

6100 Southport Road, Portage 

EPA encourages comments from the public. The comment period closes April 7. You may make 

an oral statement at the public hearing, or submit written comments for the record. 

ArcelorMittal has three underground injection wells operating at 250 W. U.S. Highway 12 in 

Burns Harbor and plans to construct a fourth. The company has an exemption from the federal 

ban on disposal of hazardous waste underground, known as a “land ban exemption,” and three 

injection well permits from EPA. ArcelorMittal has requested renewal of the land ban exemption 

and the three existing permits. It is seeking a fourth permit for a new well. After reviewing the 

requests, EPA found the company has shown that injected waste will not threaten underground 

sources of drinking water. Therefore, EPA plans to grant the company’s requests. 

EPA originally granted the land ban exemption and the three existing permits in 1990. The 

permits would be would be valid for 10 years and the exemption until Dec. 31, 2027. 

If you have questions or would like additional information, contact: 

William Bates (for the exemption) Stephen Roy (for the permits) 

Lead Petition Reviewer Permit Writer 

312-886-6110 312-886-6556 

bates.wiliam@epa.gov. roy.stephen@epa.gov 

You may call Region 5 toll-free at 800-621-8431, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., weekdays.