EPA Gives BP OK For Lake Dumping
Indiana Permit Is Within Federal Pollution Standards
POSTED: 8:49 am CDT August 1, 2007
CHICAGO -- The Environmental Protection Agency has said it will not stop BP from dumping thousands more pounds of toxins into Lake Michigan.
Indiana issued BP a permit that allows it to discharge 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more sludge into the lake.
Congress approved a resolution urging Indiana to reconsider, but now the EPA said the permit is valid and well within federal pollution standards.
Indiana also exempted BP from meeting mercury limits for the next five years.
From the Chicago Tribune:
EPA head: Agency won't stop BP refinery wastewater permit
Associated Press
3:55 PM CDT, August 1, 2007
CHICAGO
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will not stop a permit that allows a BP refinery in Indiana to dump more pollution into Lake Michigan because it complies fully with the Clean Water Act, the agency's chief says.
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said Tuesday he saw nothing wrong with the permit Indiana regulators awarded in June to BP, the first company in years allowed to increase the amount of toxic chemicals pumped into the Great Lakes.
Although the federal government has been pushing for more than three decades to eliminate pollution in the Great Lakes, the EPA did not object to the BP permit.
Johnson told The Chicago Tribune in a brief interview Tuesday after a speech at the Chicago Cultural Center that the agency is trying to "work collaboratively" with BP and other companies to improve the condition of the Great Lakes.
"In this case, it's my understanding that Indiana issued a permit that is fully compliant with the Clean Water Act. As an agency we need to honor that permit," he said.
BP, one of the largest polluters of the Great Lakes, won permission from state regulators in June for its Whiting refinery to discharge into the lake 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more suspended solids -- silty materials left after wastewater is treated and filtered.
BP needed the permit to move ahead with a $3.8 billion refinery expansion to process more heavy Canadian crude oil at the refinery, which is the nation's fourth largest. The permit gives BP until 2012 to meet a stringent standard for mercury pollution set by the EPA in 1995.
In recent years, the EPA has repeatedly stated a goal of "virtually eliminating" pollution in the Great Lakes. Asked how the BP permit squares with that goal, Johnson noted the agency spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year cleaning up polluted sites around the lakes.
Last week, the House of Representatives voted 387-26 to approve a resolution urging Indiana to reconsider the permit.
A coalition of lawmakers implored Johnson last week to put the permit on hold while BP considers additional upgrades. They question why the EPA is allowing BP to increase the amount of pollution it puts into the lake even as the agency addresses years of past contamination. And they demanded to know why EPA officials signed off on the permit when the Clean Water Act prohibits any decline in water quality, even when limits on pollution discharges are met.
"The administrator's comments aren't surprising, but they are unacceptable," said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., one of the lawmakers threatening to punish BP in pending legislation unless the company finds a way to reduce pollution from its refinery.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican and former Bush administration official, has defended the permit, saying it was in compliance with state law. And Tom Easterly, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management commissioner, said the permit imposes even tougher requirements than federal law because Indiana has designated the lake an outstanding state resource deserving special protection.
We cannot let this happen! I cannot believe the EPA will allow this! It's time to demand a change of leadership in the EPA. More Cronyism from the Bush Admin!
No comments:
Post a Comment