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Friday, June 05, 2009

Environment - Still more on: "EPA cites BP's Whiting refinery for Clean Air Act violations"

Updating yesterday's entry, here is an expanded Gary Post-Tribune story on "Congressmen demand BP probe."

In addition, a formal "Notice of Intent to Initiate Citizen Suit Action under Section 304 of the Clean Air Act " (available here via the P-T) has been filed, as reported today in this P-T story by Gitte Laasby:

MERRILLVILLE -- A group of Northwest Indiana residents intends to sue BP Whiting for illegal air pollution and seek up to $30 million in fines.

The Hammond-based Calumet Project sent a letter to BP officials Wednesday stating it intended to sue because BP failed to get a proper permit before beginning construction on its expansion to process more Canadian crude oil. * * *

The Calumet Project group has already appealed BP's air permit in court, but the new suit would be in federal court and largely leave the Indiana Department of Environmental Management out.

"This is a serious escalation beyond the permit fight," said Denny Larson, executive director for the Global Community Monitor, which is also part of the suit.

He said the groups reviewed EPA documents and discovered that BP also failed to control 2.2 tons of hydrogen sulfide emissions from a sulfur pit at the refinery between October and November 2006. The substance smells like rotten eggs and can cause eye-, nose- and throat irritation and difficulty breathing for asthmatics.

Global Community Monitor has fought cases against other refineries in the past. One of them was an Exxon refinery in Louisiana, which was required to pay a fine, install more air pollution control equipment and install air monitoring.

The legal notice comes after EPA announced Tuesday that BP emitted benzene without proper pollution controls at its treatment plant for nearly six years.

Larson said if regulators had taken air samples near the facility, officials would have discovered there was a problem.

"If they were doing their jobs, this stuff would have been discovered from the beginning, but they rely a lot on self-reporting," he said. "The company will report a lot of things and that builds this illusion that works pretty well... Industries as big as BP, you do have to rely to a degree on self-reporting, but that doesn't prevent agencies from checking on those self-reports and making sure it's accurate and that regulations are being followed."

The groups are against refining tar sands and hope that if BP is required to spend millions on additional pollution control equipment, the company may decide to switch to another crude stock or develop more renewable energy instead.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 5, 2009 08:59 AM
Posted to Environment