BP Breaking News
August 23, 2007
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By SAVE THE DUNES COUNCIL
The Associated Press is reporting the British Petroleum has announced plans to not increase pollution into Lake Michigan.
"This is great news for Lake Michigan, Save the Dunes and all the citizens that have responded with a huge outcry against additional pollution into Lake Michigan", said Tom Anderson, executive director of the Michigan City-based Save the Dunes Council.
"We have maintained that this project can go forward and we can protect Lake Michigan", Anderson added.
The announcement comes one day after Indiana State Representative Scott Pelath (D-Michigan City) held a hearing of the Administrative Rules Oversight Committee in Indianapolis, which he chairs.
Witnesses yesterday included Tom Anderson from Save the Dunes, Jeanette Neagu, League of Women Voters, and Tom Easterly Commissioner of IDEM, along with a representative from BP.
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chicagotribune.com
BP backs down on dumping in lake
The Associated Press
9:40 AM CDT, August 23, 2007
SOUTH BEND, IN
BP America said today it will not immediately increase the amount of pollution it dumps into Lake Michigan from its Whiting oil refinery, saying it will meet discharge limits contained in the refinery's previous wastewater treatment permit.
"We will not make use of the higher discharge limits in our new permit," said Bob Malone, BP America chairman and president Bob Malone.
The announcement follows weeks of uproar across the region by environmentalists and politicians upset that the Indiana Department of Environmental Management approved BP's plan to dump 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more suspended solids into Lake Michigan so it could process heavy Canadian crude oil, increasing its production of motor fuels by about 15 percent. The refinery is just east of Chicago.
"If we determine that post our Canadian heavy crude oil project we cannot operate the refinery and meet the lower discharge limits in our previous permit, we will work to develop a project that allows us to do so," Malone said. "If necessary changes to the project result in a material impact to project viability, we could be forced to cancel it."
In the two months since it was approved in June, a growing number of critics have said the permit amounts to a reversal of decades-long efforts to reduce pollution levels in the lake. The U.S. House passed a resolution in July calling for Indiana to reconsider the permit.
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St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN