By PAULENE POPARAD

Indiana Department of Environmental Management commissioner Tom Easterly said Thursday that the recent controversy over a discharge permit issued to the BP Amoco refinery in Whiting has prompted other people whose permits were in the process of being renewed to ask that they be put on hold.

That’s preventing negotiations to reduce or modify discharges from taking place.

IDEM staff even fear it’s becoming impossible to issue a permit in Northwest Indiana, Easterly added, after officials in the State of Illinois, especially Chicago, are fighting both the BP permit and Indiana’s attempt to have a federal agency redesignate the air quality in Lake and Porter counties to “attainment".

Tuesday, a bipartisan group of Illinois’ federal congressional delegation warned BP not to proceed with its planned $3 billion expansion to process heavier Canadian crude oil if it increases pollution into Lake Michigan. Yesterday, Tom Keilman, BP’s Indiana director of government/public affairs, said, “We are not putting the permit on hold. It is a legal permit.” Internally the company plans to look at the project and report back to Congress, he added.

Speaking to a group in Portage, Easterly defended issuance of BP’s permit, which allows BP’s wastewater discharge to release more ammonia and total suspended solids or silt into the lake. However, Easterly said, “It’s highly treated water and lower than most treatment plants. They have a lot of new limits in this permit they didn’t have before.”

“Tom is right, you’ll never reach zero,” said environmentalist Lee Botts, who confirmed IDEM and environmental oversight groups gave BP’s permit application a thorough review; both BP and IDEM cooperated fully, she added. She also said her hope is that the explosion of public interest surrounding the permit results in a new policy of no backsliding when it comes to protecting the lake.

Environmentalist Charlotte Read told Easterly, “This (permit) has been a model for what not to do.” She said IDEM needs to do a better job on public participation, especially on complex permits like BP’s. Easterly said IDEM did an exhaustive review, extended public notice and only a few people attended a meeting on the permit in Whiting. Even when it became final under law, no one said anything, he noted, until what he described as misleading headlines in the Lake County-based media.

According to Easterly, “I told BP, if you violate (the permit), I"ll be there enforcing.” He said he’s been told BP’s goal is to discharge at levels below those set out in the permit.

Botts said, “It’s an oversimplification to think what’s happening at BP is the problem for Lake Michigan.” Invasive species and other threats also need to be considered and addressed. Read said the impact on aquatic life is a factor in permitting but if IDEM doesn’t look at it, the agency won’t know.

Porter County Surveyor Kevin Breitzke, a member of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission where the meeting took place, described what he heard as very promising and he commended IDEM “for kicking the sleeping dog.”

Easterly observed, “In northwest Indiana you unfortunately have built a land-use pattern you can’t live without a car.” The balance when allowing industry to do major investments and renew itself is to weigh the social and economic benefits as well as the environmental cost, or just tell industry they’re not wanted here anymore.

Regarding Indiana’s air-quality attainment application, Easterly told the NIRPC Executive Board earlier that when it comes to the Illinois air quality, “They’re complaining about us, but we’re a very small piece of the problem.” Illinois pollution has a higher impact on the Hammond air monitor than Indiana does, he contended.

This year high ozone levels have been recorded at the Whiting monitor so it appears to be in non-attainment. “We have a challenge and I don’t know the answer yet,” said Easterly.

Northwest Indiana’s air is getting cleaner overall and new regulations on outdoor wood-burning boiler furnaces and even off-road engine controls will help provide an additional margin of safety. Redesignation to attainment by the U.S. Evironmental Protection Agency could ease or modify some restrictions now in place like vehicle emissions testing.

Breitzke asked Easterly what it would take to convince the Chicago area to get on board with Indiana’s air redesignation. The commissioner said for some people, it’s hard to let go.

Posted 7/27/2007