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Saturday, September 22, 2007

Environment - More on: Status of the BP appeal before the Office of Environmental Adjudication

In this entry from Sept. 18th, the ILB reported on a story from the Gary Post-Tribune that began:

The Alliance for the Great Lakes filed a petition on Aug. 15 asking for permission to file a belated appeal.

Briefs in the case were due Monday, but the Alliance, BP and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management asked for more time. Environmental Law Judge Catherine Gibbs of the Office of Environmental Adjudication granted the request.

The new date for oral argument is 11 a.m. Dec. 14 in Indianapolis.

Today Gitte Laasby, Post-Tribune staff writer who has been covering all these BP stories, reports:
The Alliance for the Great Lakes is voluntarily dropping its appeal of BP Whiting's wastewater permit.

The organization announced Friday in a letter to the Office of Environmental Adjudication that it was withdrawing its Aug. 14 petition.

"We won, in that BP has vowed to live within the pre-existing limits. Had they not made that announcement, I think we would have maintained it," Alliance president Cameron Davis told the Post-Tribune.

Davis said the organization proved that the Indiana Department of Environmental Management did not notify the Alliance and at least one person who commented on BP's permit that the final permit was issued, as state law requires.

But the organization decided limited staff resources are better spent on changing and developing legislation and on reviewing other upcoming permits.

"While the reality is that the Alliance -- and possibly many others -- did not receive notice, the legal reality is that proving IDEM did not send notice presents an extreme burden for the Alliance, especially in the wake of BP's announcement and as the Alliance now turns its attention to future permit renewals in the Great Lakes -- such as U.S. Steel permit renewal in Indiana," Davis said in the letter.

"I think there are still other channels at hand. We've got legislative, regulatory fixes we might try to look at. But I think it's an individual call for every organization," Davis said.

The Alliance plans to comment on U.S. Steel's permit and be involved in developing Indiana rules regarding anti-degradation.

In the letter, the Alliance also offers to work with IDEM to improve the agency's notification practices "to ensure that the public's participation and appeal rights aren't compromised in the future."

Several people told the Post-Tribune in July that IDEM had never notified them. A Post-Tribune analysis, published Aug. 1, confirmed their names were not on IDEM's notification list.

IDEM has maintained the agency believes it followed appropriate notification procedures.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 22, 2007 05:43 PM
Posted to Environment