Following news of their request to increase dumping limits in Lake Michigan, BP officials are shifting their focus to another, less-controversial Whiting project -- a city marina.
Representatives from the company and the city have planned to meet next week to discuss bringing a marina to Whiting, Mayor Joe Stahura said.
Stahura said he does not think the firestorm surrounding BP's wastewater permit will delay or affect plans for the marina.
BP spokesman Tom Keilman called the company's $3.8-billion plant expansion a separate project and said a marina shouldn't face any glitches because of it.
"But we still have some hurdles to overcome," Stahura said.
One of those hurdles is settling details with BP on land swaps, an agreement Stahura said hasn't been finalized because of the company's busy expansion schedule.
Stahura has said consultants and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimated a Whiting marina could support anywhere from 250 to 1,000 slips for boats.
The uproar over BP's proposed pollution hike to Lake Michigan has been sticky for Whiting, Stahura said.
"We've been trying to stay neutral," the mayor said.
The city's position, he said, has been to "not really take a side on the issue because we're smack in the middle of both sides."
The controversy comes as BP seeks to up it permit for discharge of wastewater into Lake Michigan. BP officials say the plant needs the discharge permit loosened because of the plant expansion.
The permit will allow the refinery to release 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more suspended solids, silty materials left over from treated and filtered wastewater. The increased discharges will still slide beneath federal limits. The plant expansion will open 80 more permanent refinery jobs and more than 2,000 temporary construction jobs, BP and state officials have said.
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