Summer is such a wonderful time to relax, swim in the lake and pick the daisies.

Yesterday, I was reading an email from a good friend of mine that really took my breath away. I found my self holding back the tears as I read the excerpt from a Chicago Tribune Article written by Michael Hawthorne, Environmental Reporter, dated July 15, 2007. Since I'm living in Indiana for the summer, I haven't gotten my Chicago Tribune Newspaper in a while so I hadn't seen this article when it was published. I've copied and pasted the information below for you to read and act as you see fit!

Scroll down at the bottom of the page for contact phone numbers to take action. Please call today!

BP gets break on dumping in lake~Refinery expansion entices Indiana

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

Indiana regulators exempted BP from state nvironmental laws to clearthe way for a $3.8 billion expansion that will allow he company torefine heavier Canadian crude oil. They justified he 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 moreammonia and 35 percent more sludge into Lake Michigan each day. Ammonia romotes algae blooms that can kill fish, whilesludge is full of concentrated heavy metals.

The refinery will still meet federal water pollution uidelines. Butfederal and state officials acknowledge this marks he first time inyears that a company has been allowed to dump more toxic waste into Lake Michigan. BP, which aggressively markets itself as an environmentally friendly corporation, is investing heavily in Canadian crudeoil to reduce its reliance on sources in the Middle East. Extracting petroleum from the thick goop is a dirtier process than conventional methods. It alsorequires more energy that could significantly increase greenhouse gaseslinked to global warming.

Environmental groups and dozens of neighbors pleaded with BP to installmore effective pollution controls at the nation's fourth-largest refinery, which rises above the lakeshore about 3 miles southeast of the llinois-Indiana border.

"We're not necessarily opposed to this project,"said Lee Botts, founder of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. "But if they are investing all ofthese billions, they surely can afford to spend some ore to protect the lake."

State and federal regulators, though, agreed last month with the London-based company that there isn't enough room at the 1,400-acre site to upgrade the refinery's water treatment plant.

The company will now be allowed to dump an average of 1,584 pounds of ammonia and 4,925 pounds of sludge into Lake Michigan every day. The additional sludge is the maximum allowed under federal guidelines.

Company officials insisted they did everything they could to keep more pollution out of the lake.

"It's important for us to get our product to market with minimal environmental impact," said Tom Keilman, a BP spokesman. "We've taken a number of steps to improve our water treatment and meet our commitments to environmental stewardship."

BP can process more than 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily at the plant, which was built in 1889 by John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Co.Total production is expected to grow by 15 percent by the time the xpansion project is finished in 2011.

In sharp contrast to the greenways and parks that line Lake Michigan in Chicago, a string of industrial behemoths lie along the heavily polluted southern shore just a few miles away. The steady flow of oil, grease and chemicals into the lake from steel mills, refineries and factories --once largely unchecked -- drew national attention that helped prompt Congress to pass the Clean Water Act during the early 1970s.

Paul Higginbotham, chief of the water permits section at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said that when BP broached the idea of expanding the refinery, it sought permission to pump twice as much ammonia into the lake. The state ended up allowing an amount more than the company currently discharges but less than federal or state limits.

He said regulators still are unsure about the ecological effects of the relatively new refining process BP plans to use. "We ratcheted it down quite a bit from what it could have been," Higginbotham said.

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 that 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'sdecision, agreeing with the state that BP's project would not harm the environment.

Federal officials also did not step in when the state granted BP another exemption that enables the company to increase water pollution as long as the total amount of waste water doesn't change. BP said its flow into Lake Michigan will remain about 21 million gallons a day.

In response to public protests, state officials justified the additional pollution by concluding the project will create more jobs and "increasethe diversity and security of oil supplies to the Midwestern United States." A rarely invoked state law trumps anti-pollution rules if acompany offers "important social or economic benefits."

What can you do?

It's proven that there is power in numbers; if you call your state representative and they get enough calls action WILL be taken.

Make this issue known to your friends and families and join together to stop this terrible polluting before it starts.

Even if you don't live in Indiana, please call the numbers below and voice your concern since this is a Chicago issue too.

You can call Thomas Easterly, Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management at (317) 232-8611

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels' office (317) 232-4567 talk to Kristen

Indiana Department of Environmental Management (800) 451-6027

The Alliance for the Great Lakes, en environmental group, is considering a lawsuit or some type of appeal; their number, for more information is, (312) 939-0838 X 222

Pay It Forward,

Beth Aldrich