CHICAGO, Illinois—Environment Illinois today
presented BP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials with more
than 70,000 thousand signatures from Great Lakes region residents 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. ""I think people are motivated
by BP's hypocrisy.” said Muller “How can a $216 billion company which claims to
be the most environmentally responsible firm in its field think it can get away
with this? Shouldn’t the company that is ‘Beyond Petroleum’ also be beyond
polluting our waters?”
Today’s petition has garnered more
than 70,000 supporters so far. 12,000 people have also signed a boycott pledge
to BP which reads: “I’m going to buy gas somewhere
else today, and every day until you agree to avoid any increase in pollution
into Lake Michigan.”
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 of ammonia to
1500 pounds and sludge particles to nearly 5,000 pounds every day into
Lake Michigan.
“Lake
Michigan is our gem, our drinking water and our way of life," said Muller. "After
years of clean up, BP’s new permit is setting a precedent that threatens to
ultimately ruin this shared resource. Indiana and U.S. EPA officials might be
willing to let this go on, but we're not. The world’s eighth largest company
does not need exemptions from laws meant to protect children and restore our
Great Lakes. We‘re calling on BP to avoid any
increase in dumping into 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.
Environment Illinois’s petitions reflect broader outrage visible
throughout Illinois. Illinois senator Richard Durbin and
representatives Rahm Emanuel, Jan Schakowsy, Mark Kirk, Daniel Lipinski and
others in congress moved quickly to criticize the permit. On July 25th, the
House passed Emanuel’s resolution condemning the permit. State Representatives
Patti Bellock, Karen May, Barbara Flynn Currie, Elizabeth Coulson, Patricia
Lindner, Harry Osterman, and others are championing House Resolution 620, which
passed two House committees and awaits a full House vote, and state Senators
Susan Garrett and John Millner introduced Senate Resolution 299, which passed
the full Senate last Wednesday. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Illinois
Lieutenant Governor Patrick Quinn have spearheaded their own petitioning
efforts, while Governor Blagojevich issued a statement calling on Indiana
Governor Mitch Daniels to rescind the permit.
"Our legislators stood up to say
that Illinoisans won't tolerate increased pollution." said Muller. "Outrage is
cutting across party lines and state geography. We thank Illinois’s elected officials for working to protect
Lake Michigan.”
###
Text of petition presented today
BP and U.S. EPA region 5:
“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."
