CHICAGO, Illinois—Environment Illinois will today
present BP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with nearly six
thousand signatures from Illinoisans demanding a halt to BP's unprecedented
expansion of pollution into Lake Michigan.
"This is the swiftest and
strongest support we've received for a petition drive," said Max Muller,
environmental advocate at Environment Illinois. "People are outraged
because Lake Michigan is our gem, our drinking
water and our way of life. After years of clean up, BP’s new permit is setting
a precedent that threatens to ultimately ruin this shared resource."
Combined with an earlier petition
directed at Illinois’s
congressional delegation, today’s petition garnered more than 12,000
supporters. The petitions are in response to a pollution discharge permit
granted in June by Indiana's
Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). The new permit will allow BP's
oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana to increase
its discharge to 1500 pounds of ammonia and nearly 5,000 pounds of
toxics-containing solids per day into Lake Michigan.
"I think people are also
motivated by BP's hypocrisy.” said Muller “This is the world's eighth biggest
company, in the world’s most profitable industry. With its vast resources,
shouldn’t the company that is ‘Beyond Petroleum’ also be beyond polluting our
waters?"
Illinois elected officials moved quickly
to call for BP’s permit to be rescinded. State Representatives Patti Bellock,
Karen May, Barbara Flynn Currie, Elizabeth Coulson, Patricia Lindner, Harry
Osterman, and others are championing House Resolution 60, introduced Wednesday,
and state Senators Susan Garrett and John Millner introduced Senate Resolution
299.
A similar resolution, sponsored by
Illinois
congressman Rahm Emanuel, passed the U.S. House overwhelmingly on Wednesday.
Governor Rod Blagojevich, Lieutenant Governor Patrick Quinn, and Chicago Mayor Richard
Daily have also taken action to stop BP from increasing its dumping.
"Our legislators are standing
up to say that Illinoisans won't tolerate this pollution." said Muller.
"The outrage is cutting across party lines and state geography. We thank
our elected officials for working to protect Lake Michigan.”
BP's new permit runs counter to
decades of Great Lakes clean up efforts. It is
the first time in years that any company has been allowed to increase toxic
dumping into Lake Michigan.
Federal “anti-degradation” rules
prohibit pollution increases unless the polluting activity is deemed a
necessity and alternatives not feasible. BP drew criticism for claiming that
avoiding increased pollution is not feasible because the 1400 acre facility,
they say, lacks space for a 0.28 acre waste water treatment plant. Publicly
available documents do not indicate whether IDEM or U.S. EPA verified BP’s
claim that the increase is unavoidable.
Increased ammonia under BP’s new
permit threatens the Lake’s ecology because
ammonia’s nitrogen feeds fish-killing algae blooms. Suspended solids, also
allowed to increase under the new permit, contain concentrated mercury,
selenium, and other toxic heavy metals. IDEM will also permit BP to use Indiana's first
"mixing zone," a practice by which contaminants in excess of safe
limits are legally discharged for dilution in lake water.
Lake Michigan's waters near
Whiting and Gary
are still healing from decades of abuse. Steel mills, a chemical factory, and
the refinery—the nation's fourth largest—formerly enjoyed nearly unregulated
dumping. Despite years of clean-up, the area remains federally listed as an
"Area of Concern," due to severe degradation which, according
to U.S. EPA’s website, has resulted in such impairments as beach closing, fish
getting tumors, and the water having an odor.
“This is the last place that needs
worse pollution,” said Muller. “We’re calling on BP to avoid any increase in
dumping into Lake Michigan. We need to hold BP
to its professed environmental standards.”
###
Text of petition signed by more
than 5000 Illinoisans and mailed today to BP CEO Tony Hayward and U.S. EPA Region 5
Administrator Mary Gade:
“I believe the proposal to allow increased dumping of ammonia and toxic
sludge into Lake Michigan from British Petroleum's oil refinery in Whiting,
Indiana is unconscionable.
“Certainly a
company that claims to be "Beyond Petroleum" can also be beyond
polluting our waters.
"Please halt progress on this proposal now and find a way to deal with the
waste this plant produces other than dumping more of it into Lake
Michigan."
