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Indiana is being an incredibly bad neighbor.
Despite protests from the state’s neighbors, Gov. Mitch Daniels remains unapologetic about a decision from state regulators allowing an Indiana refinery to increase the amount of pollution it dumps into Lake Michigan.
Concerns about a permit the Indiana Department of Environmental Management issued to the BP refinery in Whiting continue to grow, with the U.S. House voting 387 to 26 for a resolution urging Indiana to reconsider. Much of the opposition concerned increasing the amounts of ammonia and silt the refinery can send to the lake.
Now, concerns are rightly being raised about the portion of the recent permit that allows the refinery to discharge more mercury into the water than federal regulations allow.
In 1995, the federal Environmental Protection Agency ordered states to severely limit mercury discharges into the Great Lakes – and for good reason. Mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin. People can be harmed by eating fish contaminated with high levels of mercury. But the permit gives BP until 2012 to meet the federal mercury limits, effectively giving the refinery an extra five years to exceed the limit.
The federal mercury limit is 1.3 ounces per year. According to the EPA Toxic Release Inventory, BP releases about 3 pounds of mercury into the lake each year.
The inventory also shows that the refinery is the biggest industrial source of lead, nickel and ammonia pollution going into Lake Michigan. And it appears that state regulators don’t think BP will be able to toe the mercury line by 2012 and expect the company to ask for an extension to the mercury rule exemption.
Air pollution causes the vast majority of mercury pollution in the Great Lakes. The mercury pollution caused by BP is a small fraction of the problem. But environmentalists are rightly concerned because of how long mercury contamination stays in the environment and how long it is taking polluters to decrease their mercury discharges.
In addition to the congressional resolution, many thousands of people have signed petitions protesting the permit decision from Indiana regulators. But IDEM and the governor appear unmoved, giving neighbors in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan every right to kick us out of the water.
