From a guest
editorial in the Green Bay
Press Gazette by Dan Kohler, director of
Wisconsin Environment, a statewide, nonprofit environmental advocacy organization:
And now, threatening to roll back years of effort to clean up the Great Lakes, BP's oil refinery in Whiting, Ind., wants to increase its toxic dumping into Lake Michigan. Under the new permit, issued in June by Indiana's Department of Environmental Management, BP will dump 1,500 pounds of ammonia and nearly 5,000 pounds of toxics containing solids (including mercury) daily into Lake Michigan.
Not only would BP's increased ammonia feed fish-killing algae blooms and increased dumping of lead and mercury put more children's health at risk, but their permit would set a terrible precedent for the entire Great Lakes. BP wants to create Lake Michigan's first "mixing zone," a dubious practice by which facilities discharge pollution in excess of safety limits, dilute it in lake water, and call it cleaned up.
For years, no company has been allowed to increase dumping in the lake. And although a quarter-acre wastewater treatment plant could help stop the new pollution, BP testified that there's no room for one at its 1,700-acre refinery.
Unfortunately, so far, Indiana officials and the Bush administration's EPA are prepared to allow this to go on. The world's eighth-largest company does not need exemptions from laws that protect children and help restore our Great Lakes.
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