BP Signs Settlement To Limit Air Pollutants From Its New Whiting, Indiana Refinery Expansion

BP signed a settlement agreement last week with the state of Indiana, federal agencies, and environmental and community groups that will reduce the amount of air pollution emitted from the company’s expansion of its Whiting, Ind. oil refinery.

Canadian tar sands oil extraction. Image courtesy of the Sierra Club’s Wisconsin John Muir Chapter.

Local communities in Northwest Indiana as well as Chicago residents would be the most immediately effected by any pollution coming from the refinery.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said that “BP’s air permits did not accurately reflect the pollution realities of the Whiting refinery’s expansion” in including tar sands.

“Tar sands are a nasty source of oil that threaten our climate and they also emit dangerous pollution into the communities where they are refined,” said Ann Alexander, NRDC lead attorney for the community and environmental groups fighting the permits.

The settlement agreement calls for millions of dollars in added pollution controls and monitoring equipment to address increased emissions associated with the facility’s use of tar sands oil.

The NRDC estimates that the controls will eliminate about 4,000 tons of regulated pollutants annually, including volatile organic compounds such as sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides.

BP will also be required to put air monitors in place that will help increase information about emissions from refineries processing heavy oil.

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