BP refinery wants to dump more waste in Lake Michigan

Friday, July 27, 2007

From an article by Dan Egan in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

The mayors of Milwaukee, Racine, Green Bay, Sheboygan and Superior are opposing a plan that will allow petroleum giant BP to boost the amount of pollution it's dumping into Lake Michigan from an Indiana refinery. . . .

Indiana approved the permit for discharges last month as part of an expansion of the Whiting, Ind., refinery's fuel-producing capacity. The approval, according to BP, is part of a $3 billion expansion at the refinery that will let it increase its annual production of gasoline and diesel by 15%, or 620 million gallons. The upgrade will also allow the refinery to rely more on Canadian crude oil.

Wisconsin mayors aren't the only ones upset by the new permit. It will let BP discharge 1,584 pounds of ammonia a day and 4,925 pounds of other industrial waste a day, according to Illinois Congressman Mark Kirk's office. The result, he says, is an increase from current allowable discharges of 54% for ammonia and a 35% increase for what conservationists term "sludge" and what BP and state regulators refer to as "total suspended solids."