(IL) The Chicago Tribune – BP is facing new questions about its Whiting refinery from federal environmental regulators, who accused the company Thursday of starting a project to process heavy Canadian oil three years before it obtained the necessary permit.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cited the Midwest’s largest refinery with significantly increasing air pollution linked to asthma, heart disease and early deaths as a result of the project, though the agency did not quantify the amount.Regulators said BP’s actions are troublesome because northwest Indiana, like other parts of the Chicago area, already violates federal standards for harmful smog and soot pollution.
The complaint comes a year after the Tribune reported that Indiana regulators had allowed BP to dump more water pollution into Lake Michigan from its Whiting refinery, about 15 miles southeast of downtown Chicago. More