EPA: BP's Indiana plant violated Clean Air Act
INDIANAPOLIS -- Federal regulators say BP PLC violated the Clean Air Act by making several unapproved changes at its Indiana oil refinery along the Lake Michigan shore, significantly boosting emissions.
In a 15-page letter to the refinery's manager, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said BP failed to obtain a permit in February 2005 when it altered the Whiting refinery's fluidized catalytic cracking unit, which converts heavy oils into lighter products such as gasoline.
The modifications by Europe's second-largest oil company caused "significant increases" in sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter and carbon monoxide emitted from the refinery, the EPA said.
BP spokesman Scott Dean said in a statement today the company has "cooperated fully with EPA on this matter and will continue to cooperate."
The EPA also said in the letter sent Thursday night BP modified the refinery's flares -- the tall chimney-like structures used to burn off waste -- without complying with Clean Air Act emission standards. Those changes, the letter said, caused the Whiting refinery to exceed sulfur dioxide emission limits.
The agency said BP failed to monitor emissions from several sources and also did not conduct "timely performance tests" of hydrogen chloride emissions from its catalytic reforming units that convert low-octane refining byproducts into high-octane liquid products.
The company has 10 days to request a conference with the EPA about the work at Whiting, the nation's fourth-largest refinery, about 20 miles southeast of downtown Chicago.
Dean said while the EPA letter alleges "a number of past rule violations," the Whiting refinery's overall air emissions have been cut 68 percent since 2001.
"BP hopes to resolve differences of opinion with the regulator regarding interpretation of the rules which were enacted by EPA in support of the Clean Air Act," the company's statement said.
In August, the London-based oil company promised it would scrap the Whiting refinery's planned $3.8 billion expansion if it could not cut the amount of additional wastewater the expansion would flow into Lake Michigan.
The company filed an air emissions permit for that project with Indiana environmental regulators on Oct. 31.