VIRB

Yesterday I posted on the success of Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Rahm Emanuel in preventing BP from *increasing* dumping of pollutants into Lake Michigan.

However, companies like BP continue to dump into Lake Michigan. Which got me wondering: what can we do to clean up Lake Michigan?

One of the first websites I came across when I googled "clean lake Michigan" was for the Great Lakes LaMPs (LakeWide Management Plans), an organization that deals with Great Lakes water pollution. LaMPs is run by the EPA - the very organization that sets the standards that allow BP to dump mercury and other pollutants into the Great Lakes every year.

Stupefied by this bit of knowledge, I decided to call my regional branch of the EPA for clarification. I spoke with Phillippa Cannon, the media spokesperson for EPA's Region 5, which covers Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

The interview was helpful in clarifying the issue, but truthfully it gave rise to more questions than answers.

First I asked Ms. Cannon for advice: what are some practical things the average consumer can do to clean up the Great Lakes?

She suggested that beach goers clean up after themselves: increased litter on beaches generally gets consumed by sea birds, whose increased defecation adds bacteria into the water. Increased bacteria in the water leads to beach closings.

She also suggested that interested citizens pay attention to public notices on new corporate dumping plans. Permits that allow corporations to dump contaminants are issued at the state level; as such, states are required to open up public comment periods during which average folks like you and me can protest.

Apart from this, Cannon said, there isn't a whole lot regular folks can do to clean up the lakes. A majority of the pollution comes from run off from cities, corporate dumping, and even the air: most of the mercury in water, she said, comes from industrial air pollution.

According to Cannon, the BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana is expanding, hoping in the expansion to be able to process crude oil from Canada. The Canadian crude is dirty stuff, and in processing it there would be an increased amount of waste the plant would have to eliminate into the lake.

It was the State of Indiana, Cannon said, and *not* the EPA that issued the permit to BP that would allow them to increase dumping into the lake with the expansion of the plant. That said, the EPA sets federal dumping standards by which the states abide; the federal EPA oversees the states' systems, ensuring that corporations aren't allowed to exceed the limits set by the EPA.

The EPA doesn't approve state permits, but if there is a major permit (as in BP's case) the EPA will request to review it. The EPA *did* review the permit issued to BP by the state of Indiana and made some suggestions. "But everything that was in that permit," Cannon said, "met state and federal water quality standards."

For the record, here's the official statement the EPA released last week in response to BP's decision to back down from its new dumping plans: "BP's pledge today is a positive development that responds to the serious concerns that have been raised by the planned BP Whiting expansion project."

For the dirty details on the issue, go to the website of Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

I would argue that perhaps there is something else the average citizen can do to help clean up the Great Lakes (in addition to the things Cannon suggested): DRIVE LESS! Our addiction to fossil fuel is a huge part of the problem; if it weren't for consumer demand, perhaps BP wouldn't have had to increase its operations in Whiting in the first place.

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