Scott Van Den Plas : Philosopher

What a cute commercial. From what I understand though, the proper ending should have been one baby stuffing the gas pump down another baby’s throat and pumping toxic sludge and ammonia into his stomach.

I read from the Tribune.

The massive BP oil refinery in Whiting, Ind., is planning to dump significantly more ammonia and industrial sludge into Lake Michigan, running counter to years of efforts to clean up the Great Lakes.

Indiana regulators exempted BP from state environmental laws to clear the way for a $3.8 billion expansion that will allow the company to refine heavier Canadian crude oil. They justified the move in part by noting the project will create 80 new jobs.

Under BP’s new state water permit, the refinery — already one of the largest polluters along the Great Lakes — can release 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more sludge into Lake Michigan each day. Ammonia promotes algae blooms that can kill fish, while sludge is full of concentrated heavy metals.

BP is now allowed to dump 4,925 pounds of industrial sludge into the lake PER DAY the very maximum amount allowed under federal guidelines. That is nearly 1.8 MILLION pounds of sludge per year, into my drinking water.

The request to dump more chemicals into the lake ran counter to a provision of the Clean Water Act that prohibits any downgrade in water quality near a pollution source even if discharge limits are met. To get around that rule, state regulators are allowing BP to install equipment that mixes its toxic waste with clean lake water about 200 feet offshore.

Actively diluting pollution this way by creating what is known as a mixing zone is banned in Lake Michigan under Indiana law. Regulators granted BP the first-ever exemption.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been pushing to eliminate mixing zones around the Great Lakes on the grounds that they threaten humans, fish and wildlife. Yet EPA officials did not object to Indiana’s decision, agreeing with the state that BP’s project would not harm the environment.

Ok, so not only is BP dumping an increased amount of ammonia and the maximum amount of industrial sludge allowed by law into the lake, but in order to do so, they are now exempt from Indiana environmental regulations? Is this that progressive environmentally friendly oil company I have been seeing commercials for? What next, you’re going to tell me that there actually is no human element?