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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Environment - More on: "BP permit must be rewritten: State may not have fully assessed new emissions"
Gitte Laasby reports in the Gary Post-Tribune today in a long story with the headline "Environmentalists vow to halt BP construction." Some quotes:
MERRILLVILLE -- BP could be forced to halt construction on its Whiting refinery if the company and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management lowballed air pollution as much as environmentalists allege.Environmentalists say IDEM allowed BP to increase air pollution without the pollution control equipment required by the Clean Air Act. They vowed Tuesday to do what they can to stop construction while BP puts in the best available pollution controls.
Last year, environmental groups petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to object to BP's air permit, blasting BP and IDEM for not counting up to thousands of pounds of emissions from a new coker and from flares -- tall chimney-like structures that release gases.
On Monday, the EPA backed up most of environmentalists' arguments about underestimated emissions and ordered IDEM to re-count emissions and rewrite BP's operating permit within 90 days.
Environmentalists had already filed three appeals of the construction permit with similar objections to the state's Office of Environmental Adjudication, a court that reviews IDEM's permit decisions. Now they are making sure the judge knows about EPA's decision.
"We will formally notify OEA concerning this decision. The form of how we'll do that and what it'll mean is all still under discussion," said Ann Alexander, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the petitioners.
If it's necessary to completely rewrite the operating permit, the virtually identical construction permit may be considered invalid, too, and stop work.
OEA environmental law judge Mary Davidsen said she is aware of EPA's decision and that a party in the state case could file the order to support their case, which may change the date of the scheduled hearing on April 12.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 21, 2009 04:34 PM
Posted to Environment