Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News is the newsletter of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund, published five times per year. The News is intended to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas among citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
Volume 15, Number 3 • Fall 2007
BP plan sparks grassroots action
Thousands Demand Better Protection for Lake Michigan
By Jamie Cross, Alliance for the Great Lakes
In a pollution expansion plan unprecedented
in recent decades, British Petroleum (BP) was
granted a permit in June for increasing
pollution discharge from its oil refinery in
Whiting, Indiana into Lake Michigan. The
permit allows for dumping 54% more
ammonia - 1,500 pounds - and 35% more
toxics-containing solids - nearly 5,000
pounds - per day into Lake Michigan.
Announcement of the permit sparked a
grassroots effort unparalleled in the last ten
years. Citizens, environmental organizations,
conservation groups, communities and
legislators rallied into action. Within one
week of the Chicago Tribune article BP gets
break on dumping in lake (7/15), 45,000
petition signatures were gathered in
opposition to the permit. Volunteers
circulated petitions provided by the Alliance
for the Great Lakes, Environment Michigan,
Environment Illinois, EnvironmentWisconsin,
Save the Dunes Council (Ind.), and the
Southeast Environmental Task Force (Ill.).
Volunteers for the City of Chicago and the
Chicago Park District collected signatures
along Chicago’s lakefront, and northwest
Indiana residents hit local coffee shops and
Indiana’s beachfront. Petitions also spread by
email and signatures are being collected on
websites.
In addition to citizen and group action,
regional and national leaders weighed in on
the permit. On July 25, the U.S. house passed
a resolution by an overwhelming majority
(387-26) urging the Indiana Department of
Environmental Management to reconsider
its permitting of BP’s expansion plan. The
resolution was introduced by Reps. Rahm
Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Vernon J. Ehlers,
(R-Mich.). Several jurisdictions at the city,
county, and state level in Indiana and
Michigan have passed or are currently considering
resolutions opposing any significant
increase in pollution discharges to Lake
Michigan related to the BP facility expansion.
Individuals took it a step further by making a
simple choice to not fill up at BP gas stations
and sending their BP credit cards to the
company - cut up - with a note opposing its
polluting practices.
The Alliance for the Great Lakes and Save the
Dunes Council met with BP and IDEM
officials and urged improvements prior to the
Chicago citizens sign petitions in opposition to BPs permit for
increased discharge of pollutants into Lake Michigan.
permit being issued, during the regular permit comment period. In
spite of their efforts, and although normally taking years to re-issue
permits, IDEM issued BP's new pollution permit within a month of
the close of the public comment period.
The Alliance for the Great Lakes challenged the state’s handling of
the permit, saying that the Alliance and others who commented on
the proposed permit were not served notice about the“final”permit
and appeal process as required by Indiana law. The Alliance filed a
petition August 15 requesting that Indiana’s Office of Environmental
Adjudication effectively suspend BP's permit to discharge more into
Lake Michigan.The petition argues that since notice was not served,
IDEM could not have taken “final” action on the permit, and the
permit appeal period has not yet begun.
Even after such widespread opposition to the permit, IDEM and the
United States Environmental Protection Agency defended and
upheld their approval. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels asked the
former dean of Indiana University's School of Public and
Environmental Affairs to review the permit. And, although BP has
always indicated the problem with more treatment was related to
space, not technology, U.S. Representatives Judy Biggert, R-Ill., and
Pete Visclosky, D-Ind initiated an exploration of emerging technologies
for wastewater treatment related to the permit. Upon their
request, Argonne National Laboratory and Purdue University
Calumet are examining BP's wastewater treatment technology to
determine whether BP is doing everything it can technologically to
make sure it's not polluting the lake.
On August 23, citing "ongoing regional opposition," BP announced
that it will not dump more pollution into Lake Michigan. This
announcement came one day after a hearing of the Administrative
Rules Oversight Committee about the permit in Indianapolis. At the
hearing, held by Indiana Representative Scott Pelath (D-Michigan
City), concerned citizens and environmentalists demanded the
permit be withdrawn and presented 150,000 signatures against the
permit.
Witnesses giving testimony included Tom Anderson from Save the
Dunes, Tom Mitchell of the Chicago Park District, Jeanette Neagu,
League of Women Voters, as well as Tom Easterly Commissioner of
IDEM and a representative from BP.
Many thanks to the many people who have taken action on this
important issue. Your involvement is helping to clean up Lake
Michigan! At publication time, the priority for concerned citizens is
to continue to work with decision-makers and to write letters to
editors to maintain pressure on BP and IDEM to do the right thing.
While BP’s pledge to maintain existing levels of discharge may
resolve the current threat, their verbal commitment needs to be
formalized. Further, the challenge remains to address what went
wrong with the permitting process in Indiana. This includes
pushing for better public outreach and involvement during permit
review periods, demanding clear protective language for
implementing the Clean Water Act’s antidegradation policy, and
holding IDEM and USEPA accountable for enforcing it.
If you haven’t already, you can still express your concerns to BP,
regulators, and decision-makers! Visit glhabitat.org and
lakemichigan.org/news/ to learn how.
For more information contact Jamie Cross, Manager of
Outreach Programs, Alliance for the Great Lakes at
jcross@greatlakes.org or 616-850-0745 ext. 12.
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