BP withdraws lake plan in wake of pollution uproar
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- After weeks of criticism by environmentalists and politicians, BP America announced Thursday it will not increase the amount of pollution it dumps into Lake Michigan.
Instead, the company said it will work during the next 18 months to seek technological solutions so it can move ahead with plans to expand its oil refinery in Whiting -- just east of Chicago -- without increasing the amount of ammonia and suspended solids it dumps into the Great Lakes.
"We are committed to this project. It is important for the nation, it is important for the Midwest, and it is important to BP and to the thousands of BP employees in the state of Indiana," said Bob Malone, BP America chairman and president. "We are going to work hard to make this project succeed."
The announcement follows weeks of uproar over the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's approval of a permit allowing BP to dump 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more suspended solids into Lake Michigan so it could process heavy Canadian crude oil and increase production of motor fuels by about 15 percent.
Malone said the company will not use the permitted higher discharge limits.
"That's good news," said Tom Anderson, executive director of Michigan City-based Save the Dunes Council. "As we've tried to point out, we believe and others believe that there is existing technology that can treat that discharge. So we are optimistic they will be able to find the technology and find the room on the plant so the project can go forward and Lake Michigan can be protected."
Malone said if BP determines it can't operate the refinery and meet the pollution limits set by the previous permit, it will try to develop a project that will allow it to do so.
"If necessary changes to the project result in a material impact to project viability, we could be forced to cancel it," he said.
BP also announced Thursday that it granted Purdue University $5 million to help pay for a study by the Purdue Calumet Water Institute and the Argonne National Laboratory near Lemont, to identify and evaluate emerging technologies that could help improve wastewater treatment across the Great Lakes.
Since IDEM approved BP's permit in June, a growing number of critics have said it 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.
U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, an Indiana Democrat, praised BP's decision.
"I applaud BP for making a commitment to addressing the energy crisis in an environmentally friendly fashion," he said.
Malone said BP decided not to use the permit because a project such as the one in Whiting "requires regulatory certainty."
"We have ... obtained a valid permit that meets all regulatory standards and is protective of water quality and human health. Even so, 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," he said.
During a Wednesday hearing before Indiana's Administrative Rules Oversight Committee, IDEM Commissioner Thomas Easterly defended the permitting process, saying his agency felt no "undue pressure" from other state officials to approve the permit.
He said the additional discharges were within Indiana's and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory standards.