Schakowsky Statement on British Petroleum's Decision to Abandon Plans to Increase Pollution into Lake Michigan

SCHAKOWSKY STATEMENT ON BRITISH PETROLEUM'S DECISION TO ABANDON PLANS TO INCREASE POLLUTION INTO LAKE MICHIGAN

Washington, D.C.–U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) released the following statement today in response to British Petroleum's (BP) announcement that it would not increase the amount of ammonia and suspended solids it discharges into Lake Michigan. In June, BP had obtained regulatory approval from the U.S. EPA and the State of Indiana to increase the average daily discharge limits for ammonia and suspended solids.

"Today's announcement by BP is a victory for the residents of all the Great Lake states and for the 30 million Americans who rely on the Great Lakes for their drinking water.

BP's decision to abandon its plans to dump additional waste into Lake Michigan is a direct result of the work by concerned citizens and elected officials who came together to fight to protect our most precious, natural resource.

While we should celebrate this victory today, we must also remember that this battle is not over. We still have a process in place that allows a company to easily increase the amount of pollution that it can discharge into the Great Lakes.

I strongly believe that we need to change the entire approval process to make sure that this type of situation never happens again. I urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to support and pass my bill, H.R. 3360, the Great Lakes Pollution Prevention Act. The bill would put safeguards in place to prohibit one state from dumping into a shared Great Lake without the consent of all the bordering states.

We should learn from this mistake and permanently change the law to make it more difficult for companies to get this type of approval in the future. Unfortunately, there is still nothing stopping BP from using this permit in the future once the public pressure and media attention subside....