Member
Posts: 1314
Location: Menasha, WI | 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.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-web_bp-permitaug24,0,3232168.story?coll=chi-sportscolumnist-hed |
Member
Posts: 538
| If I am reading this correctly, they will go ahead with the expansion, but have found a way to not further pollute the lake with by products of refining?
Or are they completing the project, and waiting for a better time to go forward with the discharge, under a more favorable social climate?
Take care,
Jim O |
Member
Posts: 2680
Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | Hey guys, we got the job done! BP is not going to do it!
A message from Rebecca D. Stanfield, Environment Illinois State Director follows"
Citing "ongoing regional opposition," BP America Chairman and President Bob Malone announced this morning that the company will avoid any increased pollution into Lake Michigan from its oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana.
BP has heard the voices of hundreds of thousands of Great Lakes region residents saying that Lake Michigan is a natural treasure and source of drinking water, not our dumping ground. In response, BP has issued a non-binding statement indicating it will avoid increased dumping of ammonia and toxics-containing solids, which are allowed by its new discharge permit issued in June by Indiana's Department of Environmental Management.
I'd like to thank the hundreds of thousands of Great Lakes region residents like you who have spoken out to protect Lake Michigan from BP's expanded dumping. Together we made BP's announcement today happen. We now need to urge BP to immediately call for an amended discharge permit that sets in stone its promise to avoid any increase in pollution.
As long as BP's current discharge permit remains on the books in Indiana, it sets a disastrous precedent. The permit is the first in years to allow a company to increase its pollution into Lake Michigan. To ensure Lake Michigan's protection, the permit must be amended -- both to hold BP to its pledge and to avoid setting a dangerous standard for future permits.
Send the message to BP today that it needs to get an amended permit that doesn't allow for any increase in pollution:
http://www.environmentillinois.org/action/protect-lake-michigan/bp-...
Sincerely,
Rebecca D. Stanfield
Environment Illinois State Director
[email protected]
http://www.environmentillinois.org |
