Ind. panel to vote on new water quality rule

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana regulatory panel is set to cast a final vote on what’s expected to become the new rules aimed at protecting the state’s water quality.

The Indiana Water Pollution Control Board was scheduled to vote Wednesday afternoon on the state’s new rules regulating how much pollution companies can release into the water supply.

Indiana’s previous water rules were called into question after the Indiana Department of Environmental Management let BP’s Whiting oil refinery increase how much pollution it released into Lake Michigan after a 2007 expansion. The move angered environmentalists.

Gov. Mitch Daniels then commissioned an independent report, which concluded Indiana’s regulations were inadequate.

Attorney Bradley Klein with the Environmental Law & Policy Center says the state’s proposed new rules comply with federal law and protect Indiana’s waterways.