By Gitte Laasby, Post-Tribune staff writer
INDIANAPOLIS -- Three appeals of
BP Whiting's air permit won't get hearings until at least June next year. Meanwhile, construction at the refinery will continue without challenges.
At a prehearing conference in Indianapolis on Monday, BP, a coalition of environmental groups and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management agreed to hold hearings in June 2009.
Environmental law judge Mary Davidsen from the Office of Environmental Judication will hear the cases, but a date has not been set.
"I think both parties want to expedite the proceeding," said BP's attorney, William Patberg, during the prehearing conference. "I think all of the parties would like to have this case ready for trial by next June."
In exchange for an expedited time line for the hearings, a coalition of environmental groups agreed to drop their attempt to halt construction at the refinery. The full process can take three to four years. Instead, the parties will now go straight to exchanging information in preparation for the hearing next summer.
"Normally, these things can go on for years and years. That's actually fairly common," said Ann Alexander, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which represents Save the Dunes Council. "We were rushed through the permit process at lightning speed. We're going to have to take the time now to do what IDEM rushed us through."
The outcome of the appeal will determine whether BP will be required to install additional pollution control equipment.
The parties already have thousands of pages to sift through, and can request information and physical inspections from each other until Oct. 31. Later, they will exchange expert opinions and witnesses.
Three appeals were filed against the permit issued by IDEM May 1. It's still unclear whether the three trials will be consolidated into one or conducted separately.
The NRDC filed one appeal in collaboration with Save the Dunes, the Hoosier Chapter of the Sierra Club, Hoosier Environmental Council and Highland residents Susan Eleuterio and Tom Tsourlis, represented by the Legal Environmental Aid Foundation of Indiana and the Environmental Law and Policy Center. The coalition argued BP and IDEM failed to count flare and other emissions.
St. John resident and political activist Joe Hero and the Calumet Project of Hammond filed separate appeals, complaining about the adverse health effects of emissions.