By VICKI URBANIK

A Marion County judge has dealt a setback to the Porter County Commissioners and others hoping to block a waste transfer station on the Porter-LaPorte County Line Road.

Marion Superior Court Judge Michael Keele ruled earlier this month that the permit approved by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management for the Great Lakes Transfer Station was not issued in an arbitrary or capricious manner, and that the permit stands.

Porter County will appeal and is prepared to take the fight to the Indiana Supreme Court if needed, said County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger.

The county commissioners, along with the towns of Pines and Beverly Shores and the LaPorte County Commissioners, appealed a solid waste permit that IDEM issued to Great Lakes Transfer in September of 2005. An IDEM administrative law judge upheld the permit, and the county and towns appealed. Rinkberger said she wasn’t surprised by the most recent ruling, though she held out hope that the judge would agree that IDEM was wrong for issuing the permit.

“They completely overlooked and ignored major issues,” she said.

One of the issues in dispute deals with road access. Porter County contends that Great Lakes Transfer had to show proof of road access to its station, and that the IDEM permit should not have been issued without the guarantee of access.

The Porter County Commissioners have already rejected the required driveway permit, and have made it clear that they will not issue the permit in the future. Porter County is responsible for maintaining County Line Road, and the commissioners maintain that the road is not suitable for heavy trash hauling trucks.

In the most recent ruling, the judge found that the regulation on road access only requires a permittee to include a plan that shows how the facility will connect to local roads. The permittee cannot ignore local requirements, such as having to obtain a driveway permit, the ruling says. But at the same time, IDEM’s rules give it “the freedom to not check on every local permitting requirement which will invariably differ from county to county.”

The judge found that because a permittee must abide by local requirements, the earlier ruling upholding IDEM’s interpretation that it can issue a state permit without having confirmation that a driveway permit will be issued “is reasonable.”

Rinkenberger said she will now file a motion to correct errors, pointing out to the judge what she believes is wrong in his ruling. If that motion is denied, she said the county will appeal to the Indiana Court of Appeals, and then, if needed, attempt to go before the Indiana Supreme Court.

If all those appeals fail, Rinkenberger said the commissioners still will not issue the driveway permit and that Great Lakes Transfer would have to sue the county. And if a court orders the county to issue the driveway permit, the county will appeal.

Posted 7/27/2007