BP, Lake Michigan, and Congress

For those of you not local to Chicago or the Lake Michigan area, there was a recent upheaval around Indiana’s state regulators granting BP a permit allowing it to dump 50 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more suspended solids into Lake Michigan. Ammonia feeds oxygen-sucking algae blooms that kill fish, and the suspended solids in treated wastewater include mercury, lead, nickel and vanadium.

Personally, I was absolutely mesmerized that such a valuable and massive natural resource for literally millions of people could be so significantly impacted by such careless, and most likely oil-money tainted,  politicians (not to mention by a state that only borders a very small percentage of the overall Lake shoreline).

When this was announced, legislators from Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois immediately engaged the state of Indiana, the EPA and BP directly. Most notably were Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois and Representative Rahm Emanuel from IL-05.

I commend Rahm Emanuel and Dick Durbin for their letter to BP’s CEO, their appeal to the EPA and the Emanuel-Ehlers Resolution. They also launched www.ProtectOurLake.com and radio ads targeted at BP. These gentlemen helped stop what could have been a true natural catastrophe.

I found the entire process rather interesting and took particular note to the Emanuel-Ehlers Resolution, which was essentially a Congressional smack on the hand to BP:

Congress expresses its disapproval of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s issuance of a permit allowing BP to increase their daily dumping of ammonia and sludge into Lake Michigan

I will admit, that I initially had my doubts as to how effective “Congress expressing their disapproval” would be. To me, this seemed more like a public spanking than anything. I also couldn’t help but wonder where the other 19 legislators in IL were during all this… However, these efforts and that of the local citizens paid off and BP has agreed to not increase their waste output into Lake Michigan. 

We have participated in an open and transparent permitting process with the State of Indiana and obtained a valid permit that meets all regulatory standards and is protective of water quality and human health.  Even so, ongoing regional opposition to any increase in discharge permit limits for Lake Michigan creates an unacceptable level of business risk for this $3.8 billion investment,” said BP America Chairman and President Bob Malone.

 

As much as I applaud Durbin and Emanuel for their efforts in protecting our environment, my concern is that this is only a Band-Aid fix. What we need is tougher and more proactive legislation to prevent this scenario from unfolding again. Next time, when perhaps the “business risk” isn’t so great, the results may not be so favorable for us…