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Since 2002, BP has used its "Beyond Petroleum" slogan and a new flower logo to sell itself as eco-friendly. Courting the Whiting business community, BP promised to conduct business in accordance with this aspiration: "no damage to the environment."...
Above is a beautiful picture of a sunset on Lake Michigan. It looks amazing doesn't it! well BP is trying to change that. BP's oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana - located just three miles from the beaches of Illinois's Calumet Park - has been granted a permit to dump 1,500 pounds of ammonia and 5,000 pounds of toxic sludge daily into Lake Michigan. For years, no other company has been allowed to increase dumping in the lake. It's essential - for the health of the lake as well as 3 million Illinoisans who drink its waters daily. We're calling on our Congresspeople to demand that these agencies withdraw BP's permit. You can help by asking your U.S. Senator and Congressperson to speak out for the Great Lakes. Click Here to sign the petition. BACKGROUND
Indiana's Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) has granted a permit to BP's oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana-located three miles from Chicago's south suburbs-to dump 1500 pounds of ammonia and nearly 5,000 pounds of toxic sludge into Lake Michigan daily. The ammonia's nitrogen will increase fish-killing algae blooms, and the sludge contains concentrated mercury, selenium, and other toxic heavy metals.
The agency will also permit BP to create the Lake's first "mixing zone," a dubious practice by which facilities directly discharge their pollution, dilute it in lake water, and call it cleaned up. Mixing zones are rightly banned on Lake Michigan. This exemption sets a terrible precedent and should not be allowed.
Lake Michigan's waters near Whiting and Gary are still healing from decades of abuse. Steel mills, a chemical factory, and the refinery-the nation's fourth largest- formerly enjoyed nearly unregulated dumping. Despite years of clean up, the area remains federally listed as an "Area of Concern" due to waters so degraded that beaches often close, the fish get tumors, and the water has an odor.
Since 2002, BP has used its "Beyond Petroleum" slogan and a new flower logo to sell itself as eco-friendly. Courting the Whiting business community, BP promised to conduct business in accordance with this aspiration: "no damage to the environment."
But BP is already one of the Great Lakes' worst polluters. And although a quarter-acre waste water treatment plant could mitigate the new ammonia discharge, BP testified that there's no room for one at its 1700 acre refinery.
As the world's eighth biggest company, recording tens of billions of dollars in annual profits, BP shouldn't need unique exemptions from laws with which all other companies comply, and which were written to restore our polluted Great Lakes. Northwest Indiana is seeking investment, but BP won't even invest enough to avoid poisoning its water.
For the sake of Lake Michigan, for the health of its fragile ecosystem, and for the benefit of people in the four states that share its waters, BP must be denied its free pass to pollute. IDEM should reverse this decision or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), should step in and stop it. Let's hold BP to its professed environmental standards.
We're calling on our representatives in Congress to demand that these agencies stop BP from despoiling Lake Michigan. You can help by signing a petition to your U.S. Senator and Congressperson urging them speak out for the Great Lakes.
To take action, click on the link below or paste in into your web browser:
Click Here to sign the petition. No one has commented on this article.
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