Illinois officials seeking review of BP variance

WHITING, Ind. -- Government officials and environmentalists in Illinois have asked for an administrative review of an air quality variance that Indiana granted BP America for the company's Whiting oil refinery.

That variance would allow BP to continue to emit the same amount of tiny particles into the air as it currently does rather than cutting its emissions by half, as would be required to meet new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gas emission estimates.

Because the EPA doubled its estimates of how much particulate matter is emitted from gas, BP would have to reduce its emissions by about 50 percent to comply with its current limits.

The city of Chicago, the Illinois attorney general, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Law and Policy Center filed a petition Friday asking the Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication to review the variance issued July 5 by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

An environmental judge is expected to respond in the coming weeks.

The petitioners argue that the BP refinery's emissions may contain heavy metals such as lead and can cause respiratory conditions, and that BP has not shown any reason that complying with stricter limits would cause hardship.

"The burden should be upon BP to demonstrate that all feasible engineering alternatives have been considered and evaluated," the petition states. "BP should be required to submit detailed cost data for all technically feasible alternatives considered as well as detailed analysis of why implementation of the most protective alternatives would result in 'severe economic hardship.' "

Officials with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management said that Illinois' petition was incomplete and should be rejected.

But the petitioners countered that rejecting the petition would prevent a "meaningful public review of IDEM's decision."

The petition followed weeks of uproar over a water discharge permit IDEM granted that would have allowed BP to increase the amount of ammonia and suspended solids it planned to dump into Lake Michigan as part of the refinery's expansion.

BP last week said it would seek technological solutions so it can move ahead with a $3.8 billion expansion of its oil refinery in Whiting, just east of Chicago, without increasing its discharges of ammonia and suspended solids.