Statement
of Dan Kohler, Wisconsin Environment Director
Madison, WI—Citing
"ongoing regional opposition," BP America Chairman and President Bob
Malone announced this morning that the company will avoid any increased
pollution into Lake Michigan from its oil refinery expansion in Whiting,
Indiana.
BP has heard the voices of thousands of Wisconsinites and millions of
Great Lakes region residents that Lake Michigan is our natural treasure and
source of drinking water, not our dumping ground. BP has issued a non-binding
statement indicating it will avoid increased dumping of ammonia and
toxics-containing solids, which are allowed by its new discharge permit issued
in June by Indiana’s
Department of Environmental Management.
I'd like to thank the hundreds of thousands of Great Lakes region
residents who have spoken out to protect Lake Michigan from BP’s expanded
dumping. We now need to urge BP to immediately call for an amended
discharge permit that codifies its promise to avoid any increase in pollution.
As long as BP’s discharge permit remains on the books in Indiana,
it sets the disastrous precedent of being the first in years to allow a company
to increase pollution into Lake Michigan. To
ensure that Lake Michigan's protection, the permit must be amended -- both to
hold BP to its pledge and to avoid setting the standard by which Indiana’s Department of
Environmental Management and U.S. EPA issues future permits.
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Wisconsin
Environment is a statewide, non-partisan, non-profit environmental advocacy
organization and is the new home of WISPIRG’s environmental work.
