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Wisconsin
Environment and allied groups deliver petition calling on BP
and U.S.
EPA to halt BP’s planned expansion of polluting in Lake Michigan.
More than ten thousand sign pledge to boycott BP gasoline.
Madison, Wisconsin—Wisconsin
Environment
and allied groups today presented BP and the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency officials with more than 70,000 thousand 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 Dan Kohler,
director of Wisconsin Environment. "I
think people are motivated by BP's hypocrisy. How can a $216 billion company
which claims to be the most environmentally responsible firm in its field
think it can get away with this? Shouldn’t the company that is ‘Beyond
Petroleum’ also be beyond polluting our waters?”
Today’s petition has garnered
more than 70,000 supporters so far. 12,000 people have also signed a boycott
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.
“The Great Lakes are our
treasure, our drinking water and our way of life,” said Kohler. After years
of clean up, BP’s new permit is setting a precedent that threatens to
ultimately ruin this shared resource. Indiana and U.S. EPA officials might be
willing to let this go on, but we're not. The world’s eighth largest company
does not need exemptions from laws meant to protect children and restore our
Great Lakes. We‘re calling on BP to avoid any increase in dumping into Lake
Michigan,” continued Kohler.
BP's new permit runs counter to
decades of Great Lakes cleanup 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.
Wisconsin Environment’s petitions
reflect broader outrage visible throughout Wisconsin. The mayors of Milwaukee, Racine, Green Bay,
Sheboygan and Superior recently sent a joint letter to the Indiana Department
of Environmental Management opposing the plan.
"These mayors of Wisconsin
cities on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior stood up to say that Wisconsinites
won't tolerate increased pollution,” said Kohler. "Outrage is cutting
across party lines and state geography. We thank Wisconsin’s mayors for
working to protect Lake 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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