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Thursday, August 28, 2008
Environment - More on "Plans nixed for BP asphalt plant"
Following up on this story yesterday broken by the Gary Post-Tribune, Christine Kraly of the NWI Times reports today:
HAMMOND | The BP refinery in Whiting has withdrawn its plans to build a portion of its $3.8 billion expansion in the city of Hammond.BP officials sent a letter to the city officially withdrawing the company's request last week, BP spokesman Tom Keilman said Wednesday. * * *
No BP officials attended the city's Board of Zoning Appeals meeting at which attorneys for the firm offered a one-sentence withdrawal of the permit requests needed to build the facility.
City environmental regulators appeared ready to approve the plan in March when they issued a 96-page report outlining several conditions through which BP could earn a favorable recommendation from the zoning board.
The report sparked a request by BP to postpone any decision on the asphalt center plan -- the seventh such delay since the project was first brought to city officials in October 2006.
"We were just doing our job," Ronald Novak, executive director of the Hammond Department of Environmental Management, said Wednesday night. "Which was dealing with issues brought to our attention by the public."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 28, 2008 10:10 AM
Posted to Environment