Environment Michigan delivers petition opposing
BP’s planned expansion of dumping in Lake Michigan.
More than ten thousand pledge to avoid
BP gasoline.
Ann Arbor, Michigan—Environment Michigan today presented
BP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials with more than 65,000
signatures from Great Lakes region residents demanding a halt to BP's
unprecedented expansion of pollution into Lake Michigan.
"This
is the swiftest and strongest support we've received for a petition
drive," said Abby Rubley, field director at Environment Michigan. "People
are motivated by BP's hypocrisy, How can a $216 billion company which claims to
be the most environmentally responsible in its field think it can get away with
this? Shouldn’t the company that is ‘Beyond Petroleum’ also be beyond polluting
our Great Lakes?”
The
coordinated petition has garnered more than 65,000 supporters from the entire Great Lakes region so far. 12,000 people have also signed
a pledge to BP which reads: “I’m
going to buy gas somewhere else today, and every day until you agree to avoid
any increase in pollution into Lake Michigan.”
The
petitions are in response to a pollution discharge permit granted in June by Indiana's Department of
Environmental Management (IDEM). The new permit will allow BP's oil refinery in
Whiting, Indiana to increase its discharge of
ammonia to 1500 pounds and sludge particles to nearly 5,000 pounds every day
into Lake Michigan.
“Lake Michigan is our gem, our drinking water and our way
of life. After years of clean up, BP’s new permit is setting a terrible precedent
for this shared resource,” said Environment Michigan Director Mike Shriberg. “Indiana and U.S. EPA officials might be
willing to let this go on, but Great Lakes
residents are not. We‘re calling on BP to avoid any increase in dumping into Lake Michigan. The
world’s 8th largest company certainly has the resources to protect
our Great Lakes”
BP's
new permit runs counter to decades of Great Lakes
clean up efforts. It is the first time in years that any company has been
allowed to increase toxic dumping into Lake Michigan.
Federal
“anti-degradation” rules prohibit pollution increases unless the polluting
activity is deemed a necessity and alternatives not feasible. BP drew criticism
for claiming that avoiding increased pollution is not feasible because the 1400
acre facility, they say, lacks space for a 0.28 acre waste water treatment
plant. Publicly available documents do not indicate whether IDEM or U.S. EPA
verified BP’s claim that the increase is unavoidable.
Increased
ammonia under BP’s new permit threatens the Lake’s
ecology because ammonia’s nitrogen feeds fish-killing algae blooms. Suspended
solids, also allowed to increase under the new permit, contain concentrated
mercury, selenium, and other toxic heavy metals. IDEM will also permit BP to
use Indiana's
first "mixing zone," a practice by which contaminants in excess of
safe limits are legally discharged for dilution in lake water.
Environment
Michigan will be holding a day of action this
Saturday at BP stations to help educate the public about their dangerous, dirty
plan to pollute Lake Michigan. For more information please contact Abby
Rubley at Environment Michigan.
###
Text
of petition presented today BP and U.S. EPA region 5:
“I believe the proposal to allow
increased dumping of ammonia and toxic sludge into Lake Michigan from British
Petroleum's oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana is unconscionable. Certainly a
company that claims to be "Beyond Petroleum" can also be beyond
polluting our waters.
"Please halt
progress on this proposal now and find a way to deal with the waste this plant
produces other than dumping more of it into Lake Michigan."
