BP is getting into some hot debates about their recent plans to expand their Whiting, Indiana refinery and in the process they are being allowed to dispose of 54% more ammonia and 35% more sludge into Lake Michigan on a daily basis. This exception by the Environmental Protection Agency will help to accelerate “energy independence” by allowing the refining of crude oil from Canada, which requires some sort of special refining.

BP claims that they are disposing of their waste properly:

A new water discharge permit allows the refinery’s average ammonia discharge to increase, but at levels that will still be less than half of those that federal environmental guidelines could allow.

What I say about that is even though it is LEGAL doesn’t mean it is right. I really don’t know the exact impact that the extra waste in the lake will be, but I do know that ammonia isn’t a good thing to be poured into any sort of wildlife habitat. What is ’sludge’ anyway? I mean, it sounds like it’s just a generic word for ’stuff you really don’t want to think about going into your lakes and streams’.

BP also says they:

We follow state and federal laws, regulations, and guidelines that protect aquatic and human life.

Again, even though things are legal it doesn’t mean it’s right. We are going to be giving our children a legacy of pollution that could have been prevented if people would just stop looking at the dollar signs and started thinking responsibility.

Sure, energy independence is great and with the added capacity to support 6 million more vehicles with domestic energy, we could claim that title of independence a little faster. Is that sort of acceleration worth the increased devastation to the environment that could potentially be caused by the increase in waste? I hope BP is also committed to taking responsibility for the future consequences that they may face as a result of damage to the ecosystem. I don’t really think that such an increase is totally worth it.

Additionally, BP says:

What is released from our refinery is treated water that is more than 99.9% water — not sludge. All sludge is treated separately, according to state and federal requirements, and never discharged into Lake Michigan.

That’s great that you can treat water. If you can treat the water and still pump out over 2200 lbs of ammonia and around 6,000 lbs of sludge, you have got to be pumping out a lot of water. That water is probably sucked from Lake Michigan to heat and cool your refinery, too. I’d expect that there’s a lot of water for your use, so you can afford to suck up millions of gallons and present facts wholly in a manner that is wholly transparent, then don’t bother trying to refute the bad press with shoddy and ill-explained facts.

You can check out more articles at the links below:

• BP & Indiana News Release
• Whiting, Indiana BP refinery fact sheet
• BP and Lake Michigan
• City to fight Bp refinery over pollution waiver

Check it out for yourself and decide where our priorities should lie.