http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-bp-pollution-of
Alarmed families take case to Washington DC to petition
president and entreat legislature's help
Activists who presented their
petition to Indiana Governor Mike Pence on August 1st personally
took their case to Washington DC on Thursday, August 8th, delivering their
petition to the White House demanding that the State of Indiana require that
BP’s massive Indiana oil refineries come into compliance with all federal
pollution laws, and together with the EPA act aggressively to protect our
nationally treasured Lake Michigan.
They then delivered entreaties and books to 25 Senators and
Representatives.
The Indiana and Michigan
residents also raised the question of whether Indiana has the right at all to
allow toxic discharges into Lake Michigan public waters bordered by the 4
states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. The refinery is located in the midst of the
greater Chicago metropolitan area on the very shores of Lake Michigan.
Indiana currently permits
British company BP to dump mercury into the lake at almost 20 times the amount
allowable under Environmental Protection Agency standards and poised to grant
BP a permanent waiver of the mercury discharge limit.
Within the past several years
BP has massively expanded the capacity of its Whiting, Indiana, refinery
complex so that it can process tar sand oil piped from Canada.
Already mercury levels have caused
the loss of commercial fishing from the Lake.
Mercury is a neurotoxic component of waste released in the oil refining
process. A potent neurotoxin, mercury causes
brain damage. As recently as the 20th
century milliners became “mad as a hatter” from exposure to mercury in making
felt hats.
The element mercury accumulates
in the environment and does not break down; it can be absorbed through the skin
and can cause both chronic and acute poisoning.
Mercury invades the food chain
when a larger animal eats a smaller one already poisoned by mercury, so that
humans can be poisoned from eating fish that have fed on mercury-infested
minnows.
The Indiana Dunes National
Lakeshore is situated on the coast within 10 miles of BP’s Whiting plant. The book that accompanied the
letter to the legislators gives a history of 5 Indiana and Michigan parks at
the lake’s southern tip and is entitled The
Glaciers’ Treasure Trove: A Field Guide
to the Lake Michigan Riviera, written by Jacqueline Widmar Stewart.
I live in one of the poorest communities in the state of Indiana, perhaps in the country, and where BP's TAR SANDS refinery is located - not whiting but East Chicago. I don't live 10 miles or more away from BP. I live in a fence-line industrial community with 150,000 - 200,000 other mostly poor residents - We live in a sacrifice zone. We receive a highly concentrated dose of the industries negative externalities into the "Air We Breathe," the "Water We Drink," the "Land We Use," the "Biodiversity We Are Apart," and the "Future Generation We Pass Our Legacy Onto," while outlining communities receive benefits.
ReplyDeleteOne of the great problems we face fighting BP, and now the reindustrialization on the southern shores of Lake Michigan is that entities like SAVE THE DUNES trade against our health and welfare to fund their conservation efforts in places like the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, which contrary to your description is not "situated on the coast within 10 miles of BP’s Whiting plant," but is 27-miles to the east of BP, and most of that 27-miles is owned by two extraordinarily large steel mills (ArcelorMittal & U.S. Steel). Although the threat to my community, Lake Michigan and the Dunes is real, and although I am appreciative of your efforts to bring attention and action to the BP's mercury exemption, I am afraid your characterization my threaten to further disenfranchise those most affected by BP. Yes BP (along with ArcellorMittal, U.S. Steel, and Indiana's environmental regime) affects all who are dependent on Lake Michigan, but it just seems wrong to me to neglect to mention those most affected and least able to defend themselves, and then to diminish the scale of their presence from 27-miles to 10-miles to heighten the sense of threat to your well establish and enfranchised point of interest.
Do you realize the homes in the neighborhoods boarding BP have a medium assessed value of only $8,000 - $12,000? Do you realize that in 1995 oil started to fill their basements and when they went to sue BP for damages, they lost? Do you realize that the BP plant is responsible for a 16.8 million gallon oil spill on the shores of Lake Michigan, which has never been addressed or mitigated, and they continue to spill oil on the shores of Lake Michigan every day? Do you realize that BP is part of a larger environmental regime, that Indiana discharges 33% more industrial toxins into its waterways than any other state in the country? Do you realize BP sits on the Indiana Harbor Shipping Canal - the most polluted body of water in the country and which flows into Lake Michigan. Do you realize that the industries in my community discharge more than 18 million pounds of toxins into the air each year, ranking Lake County Indiana 9th of 3140 counties in the country for Toxic Industrial releases into the air? Do you realize how much money BP and other ecocidal industries contributes to environmental conservation projects, like SAVE THE DUNES and the arts in other communities other than mine? Do you realize how much national and regional Environmental non-profits are dependent on those contributions?
This is an Environmental Justice issue.
Forgive my tone as I am all to familiar with the neglect and destruction of the people and environment in this industrial fence-line community. Please join our efforts. I recommend contacting the Southeast Environmental Task Force or TAR SANDS Free Midwest.