Water (8/28/2008)

“Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink,” a quote from Samuel Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, signifies that water can be abundant, but unsafe. 97.5% of the Earth’s water is saltwater; but less than 1% of Earth’s water is drinkable. A human needs 2 liters of water every day just to survive. Our great lakes contain one fifth of the world’s fresh surface water, so it would seem that we’d do everything possible to protect this precious resource.

Lake Michigan is a major source of drinking water for more than 6 million people who live near its shores. The lake is also critical to economic development and recreation.

But greed threatens it and all of us who live downstream. British Petroleum, better known as BP, has been given permission to dump 54% more ammonia and 35% more industrial sludge into Lake Michigan. Here’s the background. BP in Whiting, Indiana, plans to expand its refinery to process more heavy Canadian crude oil. BP says this will create 80 new jobs. (Yes, we’ll need other jobs too, for medical personnel to treat those who get sick and people to clean up the beaches.) BP already is allowed to ignore stringent mercury limits for at least the next five years. Indiana state officials, with no objection from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, now again have exempted BP from Indiana environmental laws. Federal and state officials admit this is the first time in years that a company will be allowed to dump more pollutants into the lake.

This pollution exemption appears to have been snuck through, with little public awareness. Now that the problem has come to light, a bipartisan group of congressional representatives, Chicago officials, and the public are demanding that EPA enforce the Clean Water Act. That Act prohibits any decline in water quality, even when pollution discharges are below limits. In fact, BP skirted that law because Indiana regulators permitted it to install equipment to dilute wastewater with clean lake water from 200 feet offshore! This so called “mixing zone” endangers human health, fish and wildlife. But nonetheless, BP gets to suck up clean water, add it to waste, then claim there’s less suspension of toxins in its overall waste dump. EPA administrator Stephen Johnson said he sees nothing wrong with letting BP thus pump more toxic chemical waste into the lake.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 387 to 26 to urge Indiana to reconsider the dumping permit, and growing public outrage has forced EPA to respond to critics. But instead of stopping BP’s pollution, EPA has suggested that the company fund projects to reduce other companies’ pollution, pay for sewer upgrades in neighboring towns, build shoreline wetlands, and/or divert all or some of the refinery’s waste into municipal treatment plants. Congressman Rahm Emanuel aptly points out that EPA is missing the point, “They approved a permit that allows this company to dump more pollution in Lake Michigan. That’s the bottom line. And that’s why so many people are upset.”

- Judith Kohler

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