Inside Gary’s Battle Over a Planned Pollutant Waste Plant

This story was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Environmental and Epistemic Justice Initiative at Wake Forest University.

A single, winding road stretching off of 35th Avenue is punctuated with a sign on each side. On one is the name of a school: Steel City Academy. Directly across, obscured among foot-tall reeds, the other sign reads: Maya Energy LLC: Coming Soon.

Maya Energy has pursued plans to establish a waste recycling facility in Gary for nearly a decade. If built, the facility would be located across the street from Steel City Academy, a majority-Black charter school with nearly 400 students. Since 2016, authorities have granted and rebuked permits, stakeholders have initiated lawsuits, and public criticism has been relentless.

While construction has yet to begin on the Glen Park site, Maya Energy’s future continues to loom over Gary, clouded and tangled in bureaucratic red tape and a torrent of community backlash. The uncertain presence of yet another waste facility in the city, already burdened by a legacy of industrial pollution, leaves future generations of students’ health at stake. 

Capital B Gary spoke with the city’s residents, environmental advocacy groups, local officials, and representatives from Maya Energy while also examining the trail of state environmental records to unravel the complicated history of the company’s relationship with the city and explore its future.

How we got here

Gary’s relationship with Maya Energy started back in 2016, when the Merrillville-based company decided to come to Gary, initially advertising the project as a recycling plant that would use clean energy. In the following years, Maya got an approval waiver from the city’s zoning and planning departments and received an air permit from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, which allows companies to construct and operate facilities in the area. IDEM’s approval of the air permit would allow Maya’s facility to pollute the air within state health and environment regulations. In 2018, Maya applied for a solid waste permit, revealing that it would be working with more trash and solid municipal waste, to convert trash into burnable fuel for energy production for things like landfills and incinerators.

Then, the outcry and public backlash began. 

“They said they were a recycling facility, and everybody at the time thought recycling meant a good thing, but the fact is, it was across the street from a school, and they really didn’t emphasize the fact that there was going to be municipal waste,” said Dorreen Carey, president of Gary Advocates for Responsible Development, a Gary-based environmental watchdog organization.

Danielle Sipp, a Gary native and former student at Steel City Academy, was only 13 years old when she first heard about the proposed Maya Energy facility. 

“And I’ve been dealing with it ever since,” Sipp, now a 20-year-old college student who actively protested against the proposed facility, told Capital B Gary. 

Community backlash 

Maya’s presence in Gary was met with a wave of criticism, especially those from Steel City Academy. In several “heated” community meetings, frustrated parents, community members, and environmental activists ended up yelling, Sipp said. Their concerns surrounded trucks carrying tons of trash back and forth from the facility every day, the risks of vehicles hitting children crossing the street, and having no plans to deal with dirty groundwater.

“We had already started calling them a dump,” Sipp said.

Students, teachers, parents and neighboring businesses actively protested the facility by participating in school rallies, testifying against IDEM, and joining local politicians in protest.

In one instance, students crashed a meeting at City Hall. Preteen students, parents, local environmental organizations, teachers, and community leaders filled the City Council meeting room, holding up signs in silent protests.

In 2018, as the city of Gary learned more about the proposed Maya Energy facility and public backlash mounted, the city did an about-face, withdrawing its support for the waste recycling facility.

This included then-Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, who initially supported the project but publically rescinded her support when they found out it was a waste facility. 

“As more information became available, we learned that it was more of a waste facility, less of a recycling facility, and we absolutely were opposed to that,” Freeman-Wilson told Capital B Gary. “We were never in favor of or supportive of anything that was a waste facility.”

Many residents said they felt that the state agency designed to regulate environmental hazards and protect human health were dismissive of a Black community speaking out.  

“They simultaneously wanted our approval, at least in the beginning,” Sipp said. “And then, near the middle of when I was involved, at least, they just seemed to not care.”

From the beginning, Steel City Academy’s leadership and some of its students strongly opposed the Maya Energy project.

“Since the inception of this project, we have been vehemently working to fight against this being built right across the street from our school,” Katie Kirley, Steel City Academy’s principal, said in 2022. “Primarily, due to the ever-changing idea around what this project will actually be and what the implications could be for our students, for our families, and for our staff.”

Despite the loud outcry from community members and receiving a letter from the EPA urging IDEM to consider environmental justice and equity concerns, IDEM issued and renewed Maya Energy’s air permit.

“As a regulatory agency, IDEM issues air, land and water permits for operators within the parameters of state and federal regulations deemed protective of human health and the environment,” an IDEM spokesperson said in an email when asked about permits issued to Maya Energy. “If a permittee can demonstrate compliance with those regulations, IDEM is required to issue the requested permit.”

One of the biggest questions remaining is who is accountable. The answer? It’s complicated. 

James Ventura, president of Maya Energy, said the company was able to operate only after being granted permission by the city and IDEM. 

“They don’t really understand what we’re doing. We’ve been in enough meetings, we got vetted, and we got approved by the city of Gary,” Ventura said. “We went through a three-year vetting process. It wasn’t easy, it was very strict with IDEM.”  

Gary was brought to them as an option, Ventura said, because of its location to neighboring compost and trucking companies, and insists that Steel City Academy was not there when touring the area. 

“The school that’s there now was not there,” Ventura said, referring to Steel City Academy, which opened its doors in 2016. “I want to get this very clear. That school was not there. That building was empty. And actually, we were looking into using that building as an office.” 

According to the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission, which leases out the property to Maya Energy, Maya has a 50-year lease with the commission for $100,100 per year for the first 10 years.

“The city of Gary changed the zoning, and IDEM gave it all the permits, and that’s why Maya happened,” said Daniel Repay, director of the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission. “If they don’t meet the conditions of the city, then the city has some fallbacks on their side.” 

But when IDEM renewed Maya’s state operating permit in 2022, Gary residents and the city went on the offensive. 

In May 2023, GARD filed a federal civil rights complaint against Maya Energy, alleging IDEM discriminated against the predominantly Black city and failed to address the disproportionate impacts of pollution in Gary. 

“We felt that IDEM did not properly represent the health, environment and people of Gary,” Carey said. “We wanted the federal government to recognize that environmental justice issues were not being addressed by the IDEM.” 

The complaint was rejected by the Office of External Civil Rights Compliance. Since then, it’s been amended — and rejected —  three times, and is still pending. 

But Sipp said the blame should be shared among the city, community, and the state’s environmental agencies. 

“Everyone has failed us,” she said. “To local politicians, IDEM, and the federal level, everyone has failed the future generations of Gary.”

Environmental injustice in Gary

Gary’s conflicting relationship with Maya was not only an environmental problem, but a racialized one as well. Gary is designated by the EPA as an environmental justice community, because the predominantly Black city is home to many polluting facilities that harm the health of its people and sustainability of its environment.

“Environmental injustice of any kind will first and foremost affect the most vulnerable first,” Sipp said. 

In a March 2022 letter to IDEM, the EPA said that the location of Maya’s facility raises environmental justice concerns, citing the region’s severe environmental conditions — which include bearing over 80% of environmental justice hazards such as “ozone diesel particulate matter, air toxins, respiratory hazard, traffic proximity, lead paint, and Superfund site proximity.”

“The neighborhoods around the proposed facility have some of the highest levels in the state for many environmental justice indexes reported by EJScreen,” the EPA’s environmental justice screening tool, the letter read. 

According to the National Research Council, Black communities are 68% more likely to live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant. The American Lung Association estimates that residents in Lake County, home to Gary, experience higher levels of asthma, cardiovascular disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This means the exhaust-emitting trucks carrying trash from the city and elsewhere would pose more health risk to neighboring communities, as the vehicles haul trash up and down the one-way road around the clock, directly across from the school. 

When asked about the facility’s potential environmental and health risks, Ventura insisted it is a “safe project.”

“It’s a clean and safe project with no burning, hazardous waste, medical waste, and fully enclosed recycling. Recycling, recycling, recycling,” Ventura told Capital B Gary. “I care about the environment; I can’t even kill a bug. … But remember this: This municipal solid waste, household waste, has got to go somewhere. It’s here already. If we do not take it, it’s going to go somewhere.”

Looking ahead 

Maya hasn’t constructed or operated to date. In a report to IDEM, the company said it hasn’t built because of COVID, though their 2017 permit was active for five years. According to an IDEM spokesperson, Maya received an air permit in April 2022 and is still being reviewed for a renewed waste permit. 

Last November, the Gary Board of Public Works and Safety issued a driveway permit to the contractor, to the surprise of locals in the area, who began to see contractors back on the property. After more community backlash, the permit was placed on hold, and the city’s engineer office recommended the Board rescind the permit.

Still, Ventura said they plan to forge ahead, giving construction drawings to the city of Gary by mid-April, and would like to start construction by June 2024. 

“We’re committed to Gary,” he said. “And we went through the complete journey, rigorous due diligence process with the city of Gary to get where we are now.”

However, Michael Suggs, the city of Gary’s chief operating officer, said that the city does not plan to continue supporting the project’s construction. 

“Unfortunately, Maya Energy and their pursuit would not be a priority for the Melton administration for this first term,” Suggs said. “I just want to be upfront with them because they’ve had so much effort over the last two administrations at getting this project off the ground.”

Instead, he said, the Melton administration’s priorities will focus on public safety, education, economic investments, and cleaning up the community. 

Suggs, whose position was created under the Melton administration, said that he cannot speak to the prior approvals of permits in previous administrations. 

“Our commitment is to take care of our community and do the things that we were elected to do,” Suggs said. 

This story has been updated to reflect that the federal civil rights complaint against Maya Energy is still pending.