Angola council hears update on chloride discharge permit extension from iDEM; working group to plan long-term fix

The council heard an update Dec. 1 on the city’s chloride discharge permit negotiations with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (iDEM). Speaker 1 said iDEM asked the city to commit to solving the chloride issue within five years as a condition of permit extension, but the city declined that specific commitment and iDEM agreed to extend the permit for another five years without that requirement attached.

The update said the extension buys time but does not resolve the underlying compliance question; Speaker 1 said there is “a small window of opportunity” for a working group to develop a long‑term plan and that the city has not yet resolved the problem. “We have not resolved it, unfortunately,” Speaker 1 said, adding the meeting with iDEM was “very amicable” but did not achieve the outcome the city wanted.

Jeff characterized the agency’s action as deferral, saying iDEM was effectively “kicking it down the road to let someone else take care of it down there.” Andy warned council members about feasibility limits for technical solutions, saying many potential upgrades or investments “will not fix the problem” and that “there is no feasible [solution] that will meet their limits,” describing the situation as frustrating.

City officials emphasized that the chloride concentrations in local ditches dilute downstream and that iDEM’s regulatory limits present technical and cost challenges. The council said it will convene a working group in the near future to develop a strategy and report back to the council; no formal direction or binding commitment was adopted at this meeting.

Next steps: the council-appointed working group will meet to develop strategy and options; no timetable for a final plan was provided at the meeting.