EPA upholds BP permit for Whiting Refinery

BY ANDREA HOLECEK, Times of Northwest Indiana
holecek@nwitimes.com

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has issued the final air permit for the BP Whiting Refinery's $3.8 billion expansion project.

The permit, which will allow significant modifications to the refinery's air permit, was issued June 16, the day after the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed review period of the operating permit ended without the federal agency raising any objections.

In a letter to IDEM dated June 13, the chief of EPA Region 5 air permits section, says the agency reviewed the proposed Title V operating permit and compared it to issues it had raised concerning the draft construction permit, as well as to issues raised by the public.

"As a result, EPA concludes that IDEM has adequately addressed the issues raised in our March 21, 2008 letter," states Pamela Blakely in the letter. "We have no further comments on the proposed Title V operating permit."

However, Blakely also noted that the permit may need to be reopened at a "future time to incorporate a compliance schedule" if the refinery is found to be guilty of violations alleged in the Notice of Violations the EPA issued in November 2007 concerning the refinery's air emissions.

BP spokesman Scott Dean said receiving the operating air permit is "good news" for the refinery.

"It's another major milestone in the project," he said Monday. "It's a very important project. This modernization will represent the single, largest private investment in Indiana history. It will create thousands of jobs and make more gasoline available for Midwest consumers from a North American source of crude oil."

When BP submitted the project's air permit application to IDEM in October, the agency split the refinery's request into two permits, a significant source modification that would allow the project's construction, and a significant permit modification -- the operating air permit.

IDEM issued BP its source modification permit on May 1, and construction began shortly afterwards.

Despite receiving the two air permits, there are still some legal issues involving the project "to be hashed out," Scott said Monday.

Environmentalists and environmental groups have filed three separate appeals to the source modification (construction) permit. The appeals will take at least a year to bring to trial before the Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication, according to the environmental law judge handling the case and the attorneys involved.

"But we've begun construction and we're moving forward," Scott said. "And, we're confident this is a good project."