Rebuffing bipartisan pressure from members of Congress, the Bush administration's top environmental

EPA backs BP dumping

Lake will get more pollution

By Michael Hawthorne | Tribune staff reporter
7:10 AM CDT, August 1, 2007


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Rebuffing bipartisan pressure from members of Congress, the Bush administration's top environmental regulator on Tuesday declined to stop the BP refinery in northwest Indiana from dumping more pollution into Lake Michigan.

Stephen Johnson, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said he saw nothing wrong with the permit Indiana regulators awarded in June to BP, the first company in years allowed to increase the amount of toxic chemicals pumped into the Great Lakes.

As part of a $3 billion expansion of its Whiting, Ind., refinery, the nation's fourth largest, BP won permission to release more ammonia and suspended solids into the lake. Indiana regulators also gave BP until 2012 to meet a stringent federal standard for mercury pollution set by the EPA in 1995.

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The mercury menace

Even though the federal government has been pushing for more than three decades to eliminate pollution in the Great Lakes, the EPA did not object to the BP permit.

"We want to work collaboratively with companies, including BP and others, to do what we can to continue to improve the condition of the Great Lakes," Johnson told the Tribune in a brief interview following a speech at the Chicago Cultural Center. "In this case, it's my understanding that Indiana issued a permit that is fully compliant with the Clean Water Act. As an agency we need to honor that permit."

Last week, the House of Representatives voted 387-26 to approve a resolution urging Indiana to reconsider the permit. A coalition of lawmakers also implored Johnson to put the permit on hold while BP considers additional upgrades.

Among other things, the lawmakers demanded to know why EPA officials signed off on the permit when the Clean Water Act prohibits any decline in water quality, even when limits on pollution discharges are met.

I've often wondered about the relative size of the three branches of government, and how that relative balance may have shifted over 225+ years.

It seems that the Executive Branch has grown rather large. I think I read that the White House alone now has over 2000 people. I wonder how many it had in 1789-1800?

The scale of the executive branch corruption seems truly massive.

Of course, we are told to limit our fish intake because of mercury levels, then our own government, the very same who tells us this, allows higher amounts of mercury to be dumped where fish swim. I guess it makes sense in a twisted way.... but usually the dumping comes first, and the excessive flesh levels later!?