INDIANAPOLIS | A legislative hearing on BP'S more lenient state wastewater permit at its Whiting refinery produced plenty of conversation Wednesday -- nearly five hours worth.
But no plan for action.
And state Rep. Scott Pelath, who led the fact-finding mission, suggested any move to mitigate Lake Michigan water pollution increases approved for the lakefront plant likely rests with the embattled petroleum giant.
Pelath, a Michigan City Democrat, said revoking the state permit would be "very difficult to do from a legal standpoint," and he hopes BP instead would accede to voluntary pollution offsets the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed last week.
"This is a company that really prided itself on being a leader in the environmental movement," Pelath said. "I think that this has probably cost them more in bad publicity than it would have had they just found some ways to not have to seek the permit."
Pelath said he hopes the company will embrace mitigation options offered by the EPA, including financing water cleanup projects in the region and diverting wastewater to nearby municipal treatment sites.
Environmentalists and politicians from neighboring states have spent the past month bashing BP, which is the midst of a $3.8-billion expansion that will allow the Whiting refinery, the nation's fourth largest, to process heavier Canadian crude oil. To facilitate the project, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in late June gave the Whiting plant permission to boost daily ammonia output 54 percent and release 35 percent more suspended solids -- silty particles left over after wastewater is treated and filtered.
IDEM Commissioner Thomas Easterly and Dan Sajkowski, manager of the Whiting refinery, spent nearly three hours of the hearing defending the increased discharges, which they said pose no threat to aquatic life or drinking water.
After asking Easterly a series of questions likening the low-concentration ammonia output to fish urine, state Rep. Mike Murphy, R-Indianapolis, concluded, "You could legitimately say, for a few minutes anyway, fish are more dangerous to each other than BP."
Ammonia can disrupt the development of young salmon and promote fish-choking algae blooms, while suspended solids may contain mercury and other harmful heavy metals. But Easterly said that, even at the higher concentrations set to start in 2011, "They're just not things that rise to the level of things you worry about."
Indiana lawmakers are unlikely to take action against the more lenient state wastewater permit issued to the BP Whiting Refinery, state Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, said Wednesday after a five-hour hearing on the permit. But Pelath said he hopes BP will be shamed into voluntarily adopting pollution mitigation option the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed last week, including financing water cleanup projects in the region and diverting wastewater to nearby municipal treatment sites.
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