Page 13 - Pat Boy News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

State Rep. Hal Slager, R-Schererville, may some day deserve to be recognized as the man who saved Indiana’s wetlands. Slager won unanimous approval by the House Environmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday for his plan to revise Indiana’s wetland regulations in response to specific issues raised by Hoosier farmers and home builders, instead of trashing the regulations altogether as proposed by Senate Bill 389. “Rather than trying to take a meat cleaver to this, we were a little more surgical and prescriptive in just trying to identify the problem and working within that,” ...

But one committee has been missing in action this year. The House Environmental Affairs Committee has not met a single time. Not because it didn't have any legislation assigned to it. Thirteen bills were filed, many dealing with weighty topics.  But since the deadline to hear bills from the House has now passed, all of them died without any consideration. And while it's common for bills to die in committee — most do — it's unusual for a committee not to meet at all.  Critics say it amounts to a dereliction of duty in a state that releases more toxic chemicals and pollution per squar...

Ash from Indiana's coal-burning power plants is contaminating groundwater across the state, rendering it unsafe to drink. But unlike some other states, Indiana is not requiring utility companies to remove the toxic ash from leaky pits. Indiana has more than 80 pits holding the cancer-causing coal byproduct. That's more than any other state in America. The vast majority of them are unlined, in contact with groundwater and at risk of being washed into rivers or streams because they sit in floodplains. They've already rendered the groundwater around 14 of 15 power plants across the state no l...