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Regarding Air Quality, Critics Doubt BP's Promise

Despite BP's recent air variance, BP and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management maintain the company will not emit additional tiny particles of pollution into the air.

Environmentalists from Illinois and Indiana and Chicago say they're not convinced. They doubt BP can't reduce its emissions or that doing so would impose a "severe economic hardship" on BP as the company and IDEM argue.

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said he needs to see more documentation before determining the impact the pollution would have.

When ordering the variance July 5, IDEM Commissioner Tom Easterly stated, "The revised emission limits do not represent increases in actual emissions, but rather a more accurate quantification of actual existing emissions."

In 1998, the EPA doubled its estimates of how much particulate matter is emitted from gas burned in stacks. To comply with its current limits, BP would have to reduce its emissions by about 50 percent.

BP spokesman Tom Keilman said BP expects the modernization of the Whiting refinery will hold flat or decrease particulate matter emissions.

"BP's particulate matter emissions from the Whiting refinery have not increased and will not increase. Since 2000, the Whiting refinery has reduced particulate matter emissions by more than 40 percent. BP requested an update from IDEM to comply with the change in methodology implemented by EPA to calculate" particulate matter, Keilman said in a statement.

EPA air quality expert John Mooney said IDEM has not yet submitted the information EPA has to review before implementation.

He said it's hard to determine from the information in the variance whether emissions will increase, decrease or remain the same because of the many changes in emissions from various smokestacks.

"You may have one that's increasing, one that's decreasing, units that are shutting down. That's the kind of thing we'd like to see," Mooney said.

In evaluating IDEM's decision, EPA takes into consideration where the facility is located and whether it has had a history of violations, he said.

As the Post-Tribune reported Saturday, the city of Chicago, the Illinois attorney general, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Law and Policy Center filed a petition Friday for administrative review of the variance. The petition states BP should be required to submit cost data for all alternatives and an analysis of why implementation would result in "severe economic hardship."

Tom Anderson, executive director of Save the Dunes Council and member of the Indiana Air Pollution Control Board, welcomed the out-of-state reinforcement. He said IDEM is sometimes slow to reduce pollution, but quick to approve variances.

"I think we all have a stake in these issues," he said. "Why not look at whether or not there are things that can be done before you immediately say, 'That's OK.' Maybe now is a time to say, maybe there are things we can do."

A public hearing by IDEM on Aug. 9 in Merrillville, was canceled. A new date has not been scheduled.

The variance took effect July 23. The Indiana Air Pollution Control Board will adopt BP's new limits and other amendments to Lake County's particulate matter rule Sept. 5 in Portage. The public will have a chance to comment.