BP is Poisoning Me

The State of Indiana recently agreed to allow British Petroleum (BP) to dump an average of 1,584 pounds of ammonia and 4,925 pounds of sludge into Lake Michigan every day. Indiana regulators agreed to allow BP to do this in consideration of its decision to build a $3.8 billion dollar expansion of its current refinery in Whiting, Indiana. Indiana officials decided the additional toxic waste dumping was justified by the additional 80 jobs the expansion would create. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of heavy metal sludge and fish-killing ammonia each year for 80 jobs--seems like a great trade-off. Good thinking Indiana. Was Dan Quayle the master mind of this ingenious plan? Or was it the profound work of yet another great Hoosier intellectual?

Although Indiana is an attractive and easy target, the increased dumping which Indiana is going to allow will still meet the federal water pollution guidelines. Did someone from Indiana write these guidelines? How can the dumping of thousands of pounds of heavy metal sludge each day into one of our nation's Great Lakes and precious natural resources be within the federal guidelines? The mere thought of this makes me feel as though I had lead poising from eating too much BP Lake Michigan Whitefish.

Fortunately, BP's ads tell us that they are a green company. If it weren't for these ads I would have thought that BP was just another irresponsible, money hungry, greedy multi-national corporation. Thanks to my television I now know that BP is as committed to "environmental stewardship" as they claim. What kind of company needs television advertising to tell people they are environmentally friendly? This is like a used car salesman saying "trust me." Thou doth protest too much.

Fortunately, BP is focused on what counts: the market for fossil fuel. After all, BP's biggest concern is getting their "product to market with minimal environmental impact." Never mind the fact that "getting the product to market" involves irreversible poising of our fresh water supply. I wonder if they will have a swimming area near the plant?

At least we can rest assured that BP is doing "everything they [can do] to keep more pollution out of the lake" and the environment. Luckily, the new refining plant will be refining Canadian crude oil which is a much dirtier than Middle Eastern oil and requires double the energy to refine. Generously, BP has agreed to throw in, at no charge, the additional greenhouse gases the new plant will produce as a result of its patriotic efforts to reduce its reliance on Middle Eastern oil. God Bless America.

Apparently, BP has no choice but to dump the metallic sludge in Lake Michigan because there simply isn't enough room at the 1400 acre site to upgrade the refinery's water treatment plant. I suppose we couldn't expect such a "good-steward" of the environment to endure such suffrage. I mean seriously, it would have been ridiculous to have required an entity of such endless means to do something so crazy as to--I don't know--buy some land somewhere else for the water treatment plant. That would be un-American.

In any event the Indiana regulators seem to be on the ball. Although they have no idea what effect the metallic sludge will have on the eco-system, they drove a hard bargain with BP and "ratcheted [the pollution] down quite a bit from what it could have been." Thank goodness. I suppose they could have allowed them to dump 3000 pounds of metallic sludge into Lake Michigan each day.

I was a bit worried about this until I learned that BP will not be dumping the toxic metallic sludge directly into the shoreline waters. Fortunately, BP will be mixing the toxic waste with clean water and then dumping it in the lake 200 feet from shore. Phew! If they mix it with clean water and then dump it 200 feet from shore I am sure that is fine.

Funny thing is, this practice of creating a "mixing zone" is illegal under Indiana law. Thankfully, the brain trust of Indiana found a way around this--it granted BP the first ever exception. Truly innovative.

In response to criticism and pubic outcry, BP officials assured the public that its dumping of poisons into Lake Michigan would not exceed 21 million gallons per day. Each time I thought this thing was crazy BP came up with some outstanding retort. Only 21 million gallons a day? That seems reasonable.

The Chicago Tribune recently reported that 40 people emailed Indiana officials in the last 4 months to complain about the BP deal. I'm not sure how the Indiana regulators could ignore that kind of overwhelming public outcry. Is anyone paying attention? Thousands of pounds a day of metallic sludge in our Great Lakes caused 40 emails?

This is absolutely unbelievable. I was discussing this with a friend and he commented that the root of the problem was consumer demand for fossil fuels. Demand will remain artificially inflated as long as we allow the product to be subsidized by our environment. The only way to stop this non-sense is to force unethical companies like BP to include the cost the environmental damage they cause in the cost of their product.

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