Blog

Last week, I was pleased to meet personally with the Regional Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). I also was present at the EPA's public hearing on January 25th, and had another in-person tour of the New Indy facility this past Friday.

It's important to understand the EPA is primarily focused on the safety of emissions. With that said, I certainly understand that the odors from this facility have had a significant impact on those who live in proximity to, or downwind from, the New Indy facility, even if those odors have reached safety standards from a scientific and health standpoint. We cannot understate the impact of these odors.

I am grateful that the Regional Administrator and his team at the EPA, along with health officials from the Southeastern Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit took the time to brief our community last Tuesday. I want to thank all the citizens who participated in this hearing and made their voices heard.

With respect to the proposed consent decree order, I understand some may feel this order would not go far enough to hold New Indy accountable.  However, I believe most can agree this is one step in the right direction, and indicates a public desire of New Indy to remedy this situation.

While the odor does persist during certain environmental conditions – particularly for those downwind of the plant – offsite monitors have fortunately shown emissions have been within normal limits for health-based standards since September. 

I will continue to urge New Indy to act in good faith and comply with the actions set by the final order(s), as well as urge full transparency by the EPA. My expectation moving forward is responsible corporate stewardship.  Every business should have the opportunity to succeed. However, action is required whenever any business’ activities have such a negative impact on the quality of life of those who live nearby. 

As your representative in Congress, I will continue to stay heavily involved in this issue.

For up-to-date resources on this EPA’s response to this issue, please bookmark and visit the EPA’s web page at: https://response.epa.gov/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=15198