BP will spend more than $400 million to significantly reduce noxious air pollution from its massive refinery in northwest Indiana (US), the company announced on 23 May, in a settlement with federal authorities and environmental groups that could set a precedent for oil companies nationwide.

Steps that BP agreed to take and equipment it promised to install at the nation’s 6th largest refinery should help relieve problems with lung-damaging soot and other air pollution throughout the Chicago area.

The deal resolves a nearly decade-long legal battle over a $3.8 billion upgrade and expansion of BP’s Whiting refinery to process heavy crude oil pulled from tar-soaked clay and sand in Northern Canada.

The Obama administration ordered a new look at the Whiting refinery in 2009 after the US Environmental Protection Agency signed off on the project during the last months of President George W Bush’s administration.

Federal regulators accused BP of violating a 2001 legal deal over previous pollution problems and cited the company for repeatedly exceeding emissions limits on refinery flares that release harmful chemicals during frequent malfunctions.

A new cap on emissions, which federal regulators described as the most stringent to date for a US refinery, is expected to reduce the Whiting plant’s flaring by nearly 90%. Emissions of hazardous chemicals such as benzene, toluene and hydrogen sulfide will drop by about 4 000 tonnes annually.

Lawyers for the federal government and environmental groups targeted BP after the Indiana Department of Environmental Management awarded the company a new permit in 2008 that assumed the Whiting refinery’s flares would emit virtually no toxic fumeswhen the expansion project was completed.

Critics said the permit was typical of Indiana’s lax approach to BP. The state earlier had allowed BP to release more water pollution into Lake Michigan, but the company backed off after Tribune stories prompted a storm of protest from politicians and the public.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement that protects jobs, consumers and the environment,” said Steve Cornell, president of BP Products North America.

Source: chicago tribune