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Friday, May 02, 2008

Environment - IDEM issues BP air construction permit

Gitte Laasby of the Gary Post-Tribune reports today:

BP Whiting started construction on its $3.8 billion expansion Thursday after the Indiana Department of Environmental Management issued an air permit construction approval to the refinery.

"The permit enabled us to proceed with construction today. We have started some construction activity that includes piling work and laying a foundation," BP spokeswoman Valerie Corr said.

However, the permit issuance is subject to appeal:
While BP and local unions celebrated, environmentalists lamented IDEM's decision, saying the agency did not address any of their major concerns. They'll spend the next 18 days deciding whether to challenge the permit in court.

"We will do what we need to do to protect the public's interest making sure BP's permit complies with law. Our comments identified numerous ways in which IDEM's draft permit ran afoul of the Clean Air Act by allowing BP to underestimate its emissions and skirt requirements for state of the art pollution controls. That problem has not been fixed," said Ann Alexander, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, who leads the legal challenge for local environmentalists. "We have multiple legal options at this point, and we are evaluating all of them."

IDEM said it coordinated with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to make sure the permit meets all state and federal regulations. IDEM officials said the agency added additional monitoring, testing and record-keeping requirements in response to comments from as far away as Europe.

Dan Murray, assistant commissioner of IDEM's Office of Air Quality, said the fact that IDEM made only minor changes to the permit showed IDEM put together a good draft permit.

"We believe the final permit shows that the process works very well. We believe at the draft stage we had a very good permit," Murray said.

Environmentalists disagreed, saying IDEM did not address major concerns such as emissions from flares and greenhouse gas emissions. * * *

BP's construction permit is valid until construction is completed. After that, BP will need an operational permit, called a Title V permit, which was considered along with the construction permit, but has yet to be issued.

"EPA continues to work with IDEM to review the documents for the Title V," said Bill Omohundro, spokesman for EPA Region 5. "EPA will review the documents to provide final assurance that the Title V operating permit meets all Clean Air Act requirements."

The story notes that issues continue with the wastewater permit:
BP previously said the expansion would only happen if the refinery could find a way to stand by its August pledge to remain below its old wastewater permit levels for ammonia and silty materials known as suspended solids.

"The project still awaits some finalization of the water treatment options," BP's Corr said. "We still hold that commitment."

In addition, the NWI Times reported yesterday that the BP permit application for its asphalt plant was again tabled by the local BZA. Steve Zabroski writes:
BP is seeking permission to build a $110 million asphalt distribution center on 65 acres the company owns at 1304 129th St., just west of Indianapolis Boulevard. The center would make room for equipment to process heavy crude oil from Canada as part of a $3.8 billion expansion at the nearby Whiting Refinery. * * *

Monday's action marked the seventh delay in a ruling on the use permit sought by either the company or the city since the matter was first brought before the zoning board in July.

The proposed asphalt center would be just south of the Lost Marsh Golf Course, and would fill as many as 220 tanker trucks and 80 rail cars per day.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 2, 2008 09:01 AM
Posted to Environment