Indiana gives BP a pass on Mercury

[Linc]

Lengthy article. Security certificate errors on usnpl and not having an on-line account with the
Chicago Tribune prevent a posted link, and I lack the present skill to post most web-sites anyway. Since forever it seems, the Trib has been considered a "Republican" newspaper. You'll remember President Truman holding the Trib newspaper declaring, "Dewey Defeats Truman ", in 1948. Over the last decade or so, with the pension, two governors in jail, etc., they after everybody and I like i t.

After a 2007 Tribune report, BP promised to tackle it's refineries toxic discharges into Lake Michigan. Today, the state's regulators allow the problem to persist. By Michael Hawthorne, Tribune reporter: mhawthorne@tribune.com Twitter@scribeguy

It is a lengthy article. Despite promising results from two options tested, a new draft permit from Indiana regulators allows BP to avoid installing Not word-for-word or rote, under the terms of an earlier decision by the Indiana dept. of enviro MIS management, the BP refinery can legally discharge an annual AVERAGE of 23.1 parts per trillion of mercury---nearly 20 times (17.8 times or 1780 percentgreater than)---the federal water quality standard for Great Lakes POLLUTERS. The proposed new permit would allow that special exemption to continue indefinitely.

The federal limit of 1.3 ppt reflects decades of research showing that even tiny drops of the brain-damaging metal can contaminate fish and threaten people. The Whiting refinery is among a handful of industrial POLLUTERS that still release mercury-laden wastewater into southern Lake Michigan, according to federal records.

In a letter to Indiana regulators, BP said it plans to keep testing the mercury technology and promised to report back by 2015.

 

[Linc]

With a break in the article, I'd like to personally add this is what stinks about states's rights which is clearly a state wrong in this case. Kill your own people fine. Don't kill the Lake and hurt other Lake States Like Michigan or the rivers in Illinois all the way to the Gulf, the scene of another BP crime.

 

[Linc]

Back to the article. BP's 2007 pledge to tackle its mercury problems came after a series of Tribune stories documented how Indiana had allowed the Whiting refinery to substantially increase the amount of toxic AMMONIA and SUSPENED SOLIDS released into Lake Michigan, a move that ran counter to decades of efforts to clean up the Great Lakes.

 

[Linc]

Nice neighbor that Indiana, huh. The toilet of the Great Lakes, Indiana, flushes and the rest of us up here are in its sewer. This behavior is consistent with its right-to-work-for-less laws, the shoddily built Grandstand at its State Fair that killed 7, its past ties with the Chicago mob/Republican governmental officials in the 1920's and forward, its history with the KKK, and its historical behavior in elections as a Confederate state. Back to the article.

 

[Linc]

Allowing BP to skirt enviro laws helped clear the way for a $3.8 billion expansion of the Wtiting refinery that, when completed later this year, will upgrade the nation's seventh latgest refinery to process heavy Canadian crude oil from the tar sands region of Alberta. Indiana regulators justified the move in part by stating that the project will create thousands of construction jobs and 80 new refinery jobs.

 

[Linc]

Well, there it is. Texas Gov. Rick Perrry would be proud. Pollute Illinois, pay less for the new jobs compared to Illinois, and keep the jobs out of Illinois. a 3-fer

 

[Linc]

BP--a company that is an equal opportunity polluter--giving exhorhibitant bonuses to their execs along the way--

After insisting for months that they couldn't come up with a solution, BP execs backed down and promised to abide by the terms of an older permit that imposed more stringent limits on ammonia, which promotes algae bloom that kill fish, and on suspended solids, tiny particles of refinery SLUDGE concentrated with mercury and other heavy metals.

 

[Linc]

Researchers estimate that installing equipment big enough to screen all of the BP refinery's wastewater would cost $21 to $147 million. BP< which posted a first-quarter profit of $4.2 billion, said more testing is needed to ensure the equipment works CONSISTENTLY. The use of the word consistently in a legal manner shows the battle anti-polluters are up against, not to mention the fish and the food chain.

 

[Linc]

Adding $21 ---$147 million to clean out the mercury is all going to the economy in jobs and purchased equipment. Not to mention helthier people and less overall cost to insurance which continues to be a long-range projection. How much is enough investors? Especially with all of your government handouts and corporate welfare.

BP in particular, and big oil in general, are bad neighbors for health and safety. Always have been. Let's go to single-hull tankers. Let's let Canada trash our environment with tar sands. Is this oil really going to the USA?

 

[Linc]

How many other "Rick Perry/Ted Cruz" types of states are out there? This is just another and much more damning example of a pollution issue where the 10th/states' rights amendment is damaging fellow states beyond our control.:thumbdown