Chicago Daily Observer

The Natural Resources Defense Council has observed that Lake Michigan shoreline beaches top the nation in closures due to high bacteria contamination, with the Kathy Osterman (Mrs. Bruce DuMont) beach being above safe levels 12 out of 12 times tested.

Though it seems unlikely that the tests are all that accurate or scientific…Abion Beach was tested 289 times in 2007, while Loyola Ave Beach was never tested, the results are distressing, but expected.

The NRDC does not take the investigation very far, stating under the heading “Causes of Closing and Advisories” that “All of Illinios beach closures were due to monitoring that revealed elevated bacteria levels from unknown sources of contamination”.

This despite the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District dumping 233 Million Gallons of raw sewage, in August 2007 which may have increased the bacteria count a bit.

The Natural Resources Defense Council filed a federal court appeal Wednesday, alleging that BP Whiting’s air permit will allow an expanded refinery to emit substantially more pollution than the Clean Air Act allows.

The environmental group hopes the lawsuit will send BP and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management back to the drawing board to draft a new, more stringent permit.

Indiana regulators on Thursday issued the final environmental permit needed for BP PLC to start work on a planned $3.8 billion expansion of its oil refinery along Lake Michigan.

The air emissions permit still needs approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but the state action allows BP to start construction work at the Whiting refinery.

An environmental group that fought the project called the state’s review “drive-by permitting” and said it was considering its options for appealing the decision.

Project foes have raised concerns about increases in carbon dioxide and other pollutants coming from the expanded refinery about 20 miles southeast of downtown Chicago.

“Candidates for commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District usually don’t have Web sites, don’t march in the Gay Pride Parade, and don’t receive endorsements from Democracy for America meetups. The board of commissioners is typically filled by Democratic organization veterans and longtime district employees, and campaigning typically means buttering up the committeemen who do the slating, passing out yard signs, and hoping your name comes first on the ballot.”

Following up one of my least favorite smells of the summer, raw sewage in Lake Michigan, I checked the Tribune’s endorsements for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

The Trib lets us know:

“If last year’s troubling saga of refinery effluent entering Lake Michigan imparted one lesson, it’s that the Chicago area needs to zealously guard the quality of its public waters.”

Of course BP did not pour much of anything into the Lake, nor did they propose to pour much more of anything into the Lake. The MWRD poured 220 million gallons of raw sewage into Lake Michigan, without the local press whispering any concern.

So, the Trib endorses Frank Avila, a board member at MWRD during one of the more botched up environmental messes in recent memory, without mention of any issues that may have occurred under his watch.

Candidate Spryropolous (endorsed by the Trib) tells us that ... Read More...

Sometimes important news eludes us because it all sounds so technical. Take the fight over BP’s plans to allegedly pollute Lake Michigan. The news that we missed from an independent analysis is that the company’s plan for a $3.6 billion upgrade of its northwest Indiana refinery will not muck up the lake, as the plan’s critics assert and as the public has been led to believe.

“Which would be harder for you to survive without for three days, oil or clean water?” —Cameron Davis, President of the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Davis has managed in one sentence to capture the essence of the debate over whether BP should be allowed to slightly increase discharges of ammonia and suspended particulate matter into Lake Michigan as part of a $3.8 billion expansion of its northwestern Indiana refinery.

For Davis, and so many others, the issue is one of absolutes: Do you want clean water or oil?

In real life, that’s not the choice we face. Choices are not so absolute, but the opponents who have bashed BP, the state of Indiana and the U.S. EPA for approving the expansion plans would have it so. Either or. Black or white. Good or evil.

With a single question, which he posed in his response to the Chicago Daily ... Read More...

Dear Mr. Powers:

I’ll ask your readers three questions. First, is it OK to authorize increased pollution to Lake Michigan?

Thank you for asking us to respond to your open letter to the Alliance for the Great Lakes ( http://cdobs.com/our-columns/open-letter-to-the-alliance-for-the-great-lakes/, September 8), especially in light of some 233 million gallons of wastewater that discharged to Lake Michigan from recent heavy rains.

If your readers answered “no,” they’d get an A+ for the right answer to your question and the above question. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management gave BP’s Whiting refinery a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit allowing increases pollution levels of ammonia and Total Suspended Solids over the previous permit. When Congress passed the federal Clean Water Act in 1972, it was with one overriding goal in mind: to reduce pollution levels to the nation’s waterways over time. Reduce, not increase. And this is a goal ... Read More...