BP loves you, Yes they do, because they said so

In case you missed it, back in mid-July, BP was given a pass by Indiana regulators to allow the oil giant to dump more ammonia and various other sludge into Lake Michigan. The exemption paved the wave for a $3.8 billion expansion of BP's Whiting, IN refinery that would allow the company to refine heavier Canadian crude oil. BP would be releasing 54% more ammonia and 35% more solids into the lake.

The trade-off being that BP would create 80 permanent jobs (guestimated at $3.584 million/year using the three-year-average median income for Indiana in 2004-06, as provided by the US Census Bureau) and 2,000 construction jobs. Also, BP correctly noted that the refinery would still meet Federal water polution standards. However, the request to dump more chemicals runs afoul of the spirit of the Clean Water Act, which prohibits a downgrade in water quality despite the company meeting the discharge limits. However, under certain circumstances (as with BP in this case), a company will be allowed to use mixing zones, which amounts to diluting wastewater with clean water at a distance offshore. Federal regulators discourage the practice, but it is still in use.

Naturally, the Chicago Tribune article prompted a public outcry and a push from politicians, including Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, US Rep Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), US Rep Mark Kirk (R-IL), US Sen Dick Durbin (D-IL), US Sen Barack Obama (D-IL), as well as 100,000 petition signatures, an Eddie Vedder (singer of the band Pearl Jam) led chant at Lollapalooza in Chicago, and a U S House of Reps vote of 387-26 to approve a non-binding resolution urging Indiana regulators to reconsider.

BP did, in fact, respond to the people. On August 23rd, BP pledged not to increase dumping. However, the BP pledge is non-binding. The permit allowing the increase in ammonia and suspended solids dumped into the lake remains intact. In securing the permit originally, Federal and State of Indiana regulators relied heavily on BP comments that there is not enough room at the facility for equipment that could reduce the pollution being generated. Despite these claims, Chicago officials gave BP a report in the weeks prior to the Trib article that listed alternate technologies currently in use by other refineries. The report by Tetra Tech Inc concluded that BP could upgrade the Whiting plant's water treatment plant for less that $40 million (1% of the planned $3.8 billion expansion). BP is now paying Argonne National Lab and Purdue University to evaluate new tech.

Nevertheless, the public must stomach the idea that, while BP claims to be environmentally friendly, they were fully ready to increase pollution were plans not slowed by an energized (for the moment) public. The permit remains, despite BP's pledge. Note that both BP and Indiana government reps seemed to be uninterested in changing the legally binding permit, thinking that the public would accept the earnest statements by BP. BP spokesman Scott Dean was quoted in the Trib aricle as saying that it was up to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) to alter the permit. State reps, however, claim that the company would first have to request a change.

Apparently feeling that the water dumping situation wasn't good enough, BP has recently been given a break on soot limits. A new decision by the IDEM would allow BP to continue releasing the same amount of air polution, in opposition to new federal rules that would require the Whiting refinery to reduce emissions by nearly half. Interested parties are asking an Indiana judge to overturn the ruling. Federal regulators must also sign off on the Indiana ruling and are taking a close look at the decision.

As in the water dumping scenario, BP claims that meeting existing soot limits is not technically or economically feasible. And yet again, Indiana regulators agreed. The mutual decisions by BP and the IDEM seem contradictory to the continued concerns regarding air polution in the industrial corridor surrounding Lake Michigan (try driving through northwest Indiana with your windows down on a hot, summer day). Additionally, the EPA has recently concluded that refineries burning natural gas and other fuels emit close to two times more pollution than previously thought (though they seem to simultaneously claim that current limits are acceptable).

BP claims that soot emissions have dropped 40% since 2000 and should drop lower when the Whiting expansion is completed in 2011. According to 2005 stats, the refinery produced 574,000 pounds of toxic chemicals. Indiana regulators stated in public documents that the exemptions for BP would not cause harm to air quality.

This time, the opponents on the eco-battlefront appear to be lawyers for Chicago Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, the Environmental Law and Policy Center and the Natural Resource Defense Council. They are pushing both BP and Indiana officials to explain why there isn't documentation of why alternative engineering fixes wouldn't work and making sure all alternatives have been reviewed.

This is a classic battle. A very large corporation leveraging its position in the economy of a community and going to the very limit of acceptable behavior. On the other side, a very concerned populace is tired of letting them bully their way into profits at the expense of potential long term damage to the local ecology. Simultaneously, all sides seem unwilling to shoulder the economic burden of a change in behavior.

This newest bout was certainly poorly timed for BP. One can only hope that the populace stays concerned, though given the amount of nonsense that goes on all over the globe, it's difficult. Perhaps this was just a bad month for BP officials and they aren't as hell bent on keeping the status quo as it seems. But let's not forget when BP shut down the Alaska oil pipeline, which is some 45%+ or so owned by BP, who was charged with its maintenance.

They aren't alone, the average citizen is not really sacrificing anything personally to improve our lot. Just something to think about. I'm going to ponder this while driving my SUV in heavy traffic, talking on my cellie and throwing McDonald's wrappers out my window. Does anyone else have trouble getting CSPAN on their mobile satellite TV?