BP will review ideas for refinery in Indiana

Chicago: British oil company BP, facing criticism of a plan to dump more pollutants into the Great Lakes, has defended a permit for its Indiana refinery outside Chicago but said it would consider alternatives.

A BP executive clarified the company's position at a meeting sponsored by the US Environmental Protection Agency and attended by regulators, environmentalists and politicians.

"I believe the current permit protects the water quality as it is," said Stephen Elbert, vice-chairman of BP's US unit, BP America. "We are committed to look at options to do more."

Petition

Meanwhile, an environmental group, the Alliance for the Great Lakes, filed a petition asking Indiana's Office of Environmental Adjudication to suspend the permit because of inadequate public scrutiny.

The state of Indiana granted the permit in June to BP's 405,000 barrel-a-day Whiting refinery, which is to undergo a $3.8 billion renovation scheduled to be completed in 2011.

The refinery will be able to boost the amount of ammonia it can discharge daily into Lake Michigan by 54 per cent from current levels to 1,584 pounds and of suspended solids (containing fine particles of metals and others minerals) by 35 per cent to 4,925 pounds.