BP gets OK to dump mercury into Lake Michigan

[Richard]

By Bobby Carmichael, USA TODAY

A BP (BP) refinery in Indiana will be allowed to continue to dump mercury into Lake Michigan under a permit issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

The permit exempts the BP plant at Whiting, Ind., 3 miles southeast of Chicago, from a 1995 federal regulation limiting mercury discharges into the Great Lakes to 1.3 ounces per year.

The BP plant reported releasing 3 pounds of mercury through surface water discharges each year from 2002 to 2005, according to the Toxics Release Inventory, a database on pollution emissions kept by the Environmental Protection Agency that is based on information reported by companies.

The permit was issued July 21 in connection with the plant's $3.8 billion expansion, but only late last week began to generate public controversy. It gives the company until at least 2012 to meet the federal standard.

The action was denounced by environmental groups and members of Congress.

"With one permit, this company and this state are undoing years of work to keep pollution out of our Great Lakes," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., co-sponsor of a resolution overwhelmingly approved by the House last week that condemned BP's plans.

Studies have shown that mercury, a neurotoxin, is absorbed by fish and can be harmful if eaten in significant quantities, particularly by pregnant women and children. Each of the eight Great Lakes states warns residents to avoid certain kinds of fish or limit consumption.

The permit comes as the states, working with the federal government, are trying to implement the $20 billion Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy, an umbrella plan to restore the health of the lakes signed in late 2005.

Indiana officials said the amount of mercury released by BP was minor.

"The permitted levels will not affect drinking water, recreation or aquatic life," Indiana Department of Environmental Management Commissioner Thomas Easterly told the Chicago Tribune.

BP said it doubted that any municipal sewage treatment plant or industrial plant could meet the stringent federal standards.

"BP will work with (Indiana regulators) to minimize mercury in its discharge, including implementation of source controls," the company said, according to the Tribune.

Part of the concern is that the Great Lakes have only one outlet — the St. Lawrence River.

"Lake Michigan is like a giant bathtub with a really, really slow drain and a dripping faucet, so the toxics build up over time," said Emily Green, director of the Great Lakes program for the Sierra Club.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries...cury_N.htm

[Astrojewels]

I know it is extremely difficult to fight these big major companies, especially petroleum and oil but there must be something that the people can do? this is the great lakes they are destroying, the public must be concerned and take some type of action.

[GertrudaRose]

It was my understanding that this ruling actually DECREASES the amount of mercury they can dump, however it increases ammonia and silt.  Unless this article from the Associated press is disinfo, something IS being done about it, although many (including myself) would say not enough.

WHITING – The new wastewater permit for BP’s refinery will lead to less mercury being dumped in Lake Michigan, according to environmental regulators.

BP will have to reduce its mercury discharges to just over 1 ounce by 2012 under the new permit, according to Peter Swenson, chief of the water permits section at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chicago office. That would bring it into compliance with EPA standards.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management permit does not mandate how much reduction there will be each year. But Swenson said the discharges will have to be gradually reduced to meet the standard.

BP’s discharges of mercury, a highly toxic pollutant, have not been regulated until this permit was issued. The EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory database for 2005 shows BP discharged almost 3 pounds of mercury directly into Lake Michigan that year. Similar discharges were projected for 2006 and 2007.

“We do not expect the modernization project or the processing of heavy Canadian crude to cause any net increase in mercury levels in our Whiting effluent,” BP spokesman Thomas Keilman said on Friday.

The permit has been controversial because it allows the refinery to discharge 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more silt into the lake.

Illinois politicians have strongly criticized Indiana’s decision to allow the discharge {note: notice the antecedent here is ammonia and silt} increases. The U.S. House of Representatives last week voted 387-26 to urge Indiana to reconsider the permit.

Mercury only recently came under state regulation. The state Department of Environmental Management is putting the new mercury standards into all new industrial waste water permits, a spokeswoman said.

[GertrudaRose]

Excuse me.  That last post of mine sounds really cranky and defensive.  Sometimes when the pain is severe I get more of a knee-jerk reaction and don't think things out as far as I should.

Even here in Indiana, the tv news is reporting this as allowing mercury rather than reducing it.  But it doesn't matter because any mercury is too much.  I was just trying to point out that we are trying to do something but still can't get what is needed.

Please accept my apology.icon_headbash

[Richard]

Your post didn’t sound cranky and defensive. Thanks for posting the info you found. :)

[William]

  It is truely wrong that money comes before the living species.  Money may not be the root of all evil but it has done many evil things!  ;)