Quote:

U.S. House denounces Lake Michigan waste plan

Deb Price / The Detroit News

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House today overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning a plan by oil giant BP to greatly increase the amount of ammonia and other industrial waste it dumps into Lake Michigan.

"These toxic chemicals can be a serious threat to humans, fish and wildlife throughout the Great Lakes habitat," U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, said after the vote.

"This is the first expansion of hazardous dumping into the Great Lakes in nearly 20 years . We cannot allow an increase of this magnitude to go forward without a serious challenge," Rogers said.

The nonbinding resolution was passed by a 387-26 vote, and is expected to be taken up by the Senate.

All of Michigan's 15 House members voted in favor of urging the federal Environmental Protection Agency to stop BP from dumping additional waste at its Whiting, Ind., refinery.

BP is planning a major, $3.8 billion expansion of the refinery so it can process more Canadian crude oil. BP says it can do that and keep its discharges within allowable limits under state and federal clean water laws.

But congressional lawmakers from the Great Lakes objected, leading to today's vote. Also, Tuesday BP's top U.S. executive met with lawmakers, including Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and agreed to come back Sept. 1 with alternative ideas about what can be done the additional waste.

Indiana water regulators, backed by the EPA, authorized BP to increase its daily release of ammonia by 54 percent and its suspended solids by 35 percent. Suspended solids includes such material as mercury and lead.

Lawmakers said the total amount BP could release each day into Lake Michigan would be 1,584 pounds of ammonia and 4,925 pounds of suspended solids.

BP spokesman Scott Dean said today the company is committed to working with Congress to address its concerns.

"We will be coming back in September after we review all the available options for treatment of the water for the plant," he said. "But this project has followed the regulatory process to the letter."

Dean said that the proposed increase in discharges into Lake Michigan would meet state and federal standards and would not pose dangers to wildlife or humans.

U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, said he was "dismayed" that BP got the go-ahead despite the potential impact on Lake Michigan.

"Algae blooms, which can be caused by ammonia and total suspended solids, overtake native ecosystems by taking nutrients away from the surrounding plant life and also feed harmful bacteria which remove oxygen, killing aquatic life," Dingell said.

"This leads to poor water quality and beach closings. Instead of taking action to increase algae blooms, we should be taking action to decrease them," he added.

Dingell criticized BP's plan to create a "mixing zone" -- where clean water would mix with contaminated water to dilute the discharge as it returns to Lake Michigan -- because seven years ago the EPA adopted a rule that will phase out current mixing zones for serious pollutants by 2010 in the Great Lakes.

"The expansion of the BP facility is not scheduled to be finished until 2011. The exemptions essentially roll back the clock for sound environmental policy," Dingell said.

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Luddite said:

Do you use a toilet?  Doesn't your waste end up in a lake or river somewhere?

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Wow, you almost know what you are talking about.

Luddite said:

Do you use a toilet? Doesn't your waste end up in a lake or river somewhere?

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Diploid said:

Do you use a toilet? Doesn't your waste end up in a lake or river somewhere?

I dunno about you, but I don't poop mercury.

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Quote:

BP backs down on dumping in lake

By Michael Hawthorne | Tribune staff reporter
2:47 PM CDT, August 23, 2007

After a month of blistering criticism, BP announced today that it won't dump more pollution into Lake Michigan.

In a statement posted on the oil company's Web site, BP pledged to continue to meet its previous pollution limits once it completes a $3.8 billion expansion of its Whiting, Ind., refinery, 3 miles southeast of the Illinois-Indiana border.

BP, which aggressively promotes itself as an environmentally friendly company, obtained a new permit this summer from Indiana regulators that allowed the refinery to significantly increase the amount of ammonia and suspended solids released into Lake Michigan.

Few complained about the permit while it was under consideration earlier this year, something critics said could be attributed to a lack of public outreach. But following a Tribune story about the project in mid-July, opponents gathered more than 100,000 petition signatures and a bipartisan group of politicians and celebrities urged BP to back off.

The story pointed out that the permit marked the first time in years that a company has been allowed to release more toxic waste into Lake Michigan, a magnet for sport fishing and the source of drinking water for Chicago and scores of other communities.

As recently as Wednesday, the company had justified the additional pollution by noting the expansion would create 2,000 construction jobs and 80 permanent jobs. Critics, though, were unrelenting in arguing that BP's new permit would undercut years of progress cleaning up the Great Lakes.

"Ongoing regional opposition to any increase in discharge permit limits for Lake Michigan creates an unacceptable level of business risk for this $3.8 billion investment," BP America Chairman and President Bob Malone said today in a prepared statement.

"We will not make use of the higher discharge limits in our new permit," Malone said, adding that the company could be forced to cancel the expansion project if it cannot meet the more stringent standards.

Malone flew to Chicago to deliver the news personally to Mayor Richard Daley, one of several politicians who said the company's initial plans were unacceptable to people who rely on Lake Michigan for drinking water and recreation.

Last week, city officials presented BP with a list of technologies in use at other refineries that dramatically reduce ammonia and solids pollution.

"We are pleased they have made some changes, but we are still going to work with them," Daley said after a 45-minute meeting with Malone at City Hall. "We look forward to a working relationship with them in regards to alternative technical solutions."

BP is seeking to upgrade the 118-year-old refinery to process more heavy crude oil from Canada, which is seen as more dependable than sources in the Middle East. But extracting petroleum products from the thick, sandy goop is a dirtier process than conventional methods.

When BP secured its new water permit, federal and state regulators agreed there wasn't anything the company could do to keep more pollution out of Lake Michigan.

The permit allows BP to put an average of 1,584 pounds of ammonia and 4,925 pounds of suspended solids into the lake every day. The amount of solids -- tiny sludge particles that pass through water treatment filters -- is the maximum allowed under federal guidelines.

Based on past performance, company officials said, the refinery likely would release less pollution than allowed. But critics said the permit set a bad precedent, noting the maximum amount of ammonia dumped into the lake would increase by 54 percent and the amount of solids would increase by 35 percent.

Ammonia promotes algae blooms that can kill fish and prompt beach closings. The solids contain toxic metals such as mercury, lead and vanadium.

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TheHateCamel said:

Hooray, corporate whores can be reckoned with if they think they'll lose enough money!

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