GARY | The Indiana Department of Environmental Management's highly controversial wastewater permit change for BP's Whiting Refinery has galvanized local environmental activists.

An effort to organize various environmental organizations in Northwest Indiana and concerned residents kicked off Wednesday with a public meeting at the W.E.B. DuBois branch of the Gary Public Library.

Organized by Munster resident Karen Kroczek, the meeting attracted a number of different organizations, ranging from environmentalists such as the Save the Dunes Council to anti-war group Code Pink. The meeting centered around renewal U.S. Steel Gary Works' wastewater discharge permit.

Kroczek, a member of the Northwest Indiana Coalition Against the Iraq War, began by announcing IDEM had extended the public comment portion for the permit by 60 days.

"This is our land. This is our water. This is our air, and we need to have meaningful input in what is done to them," Kroczek said.

State Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes, and state Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, addressed those in attendance. Pelath promised to convene a hearing on the IDEM permit process Aug. 22 at the state Capitol.

While the immediate focus is on the U.S. Steel permit, the overall goal of the meeting, Kroczek said, is to create a unified movement that will be able to influence IDEM's decisions.

"As of now IDEM is underfunded and understaffed," Kroczek said. "We are not being critical of IDEM. We just want to know what is going into our water and into our air, and (we) want a strong voice in that discussion."

To help facilitate that goal, those attending the meeting divided into work groups. Each group tackled a different aspect of environmental activism.