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65,000 Call on BP to Halt Planned Dumping
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.
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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."
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