The EPA has announced this week that British Petroleum (BP) has been emitting the known carcinogen benzene at it's Whiting (IND) refinery's waste water treatment plant without adequate air pollution control devices for almost six years.
In the wake of this revelation, nineteen congress members from all of the Great Lakes states have joined forces to call for a "systematic look" at BP Whiting's compliance with it's water, air and land pollution permits.
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., had this to say in a statement that accompanied a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson:
"This latest development further underscores the fact that BP cannot be trusted to meet federal clean air and water requirements, It is my hope that the EPA takes swift action to review all of BP's pollution permits to ensure there are no other violations that have gone unnoticed.
Rep. Kirk has a point, BP can't be trusted. The company already faces several other pollution related lawsuits including a Texas City suit around major violations of Texas environmental laws. The suit alleges that improper maintenance of equipment at BP's Texas City refinery caused an explosion that killed 15 workers, sickened 170 residents, and released massive quantities of benzene and other carcinogens. Let's put it this way, they're not going to win this one.
Rep. Kirk went on to say:
"No one argues against the need to expand production capability at the Whiting facility, but there should be zero tolerance for releasing deadly poisons into our air and water.''
Kirk is referring to a controversial plan to expand the Whiting facility. I like the zero tolerance part, but to say that no one argues against the expansion plan is completely disingenuous. A brief search of the web will turn up countless arguments against the expansion, such as the following from Henry Henderson, a blogger who lives in the shadow of the plant:
"The obvious question repeats itself: if current operations of the refinery result in serious violations of laws that protect human health and safety, and damage the environment, why should the company be allowed to expand refinery operations to accept even dirtier crude than it currently treats, and increase the pollution from the facility?"'
The fact that benzene causes cancer has been well documented, but studies over the last few years suggest that even current allowable benzene exposure levels set by the EPA and OSHA may negatively impact health. I think it's only a matter of time before the EPA will be forced by overwhelming scientific evidence to admit there is no safe long term exposure level for benzene.
Although benzene is a commodity chemical with many useful applications, I think society is in the process of discovering that it's even more dangerous than we thought. Too dangerous to be allowed at any level in our air water or soil.
Because benzene is heavily relied upon by the industrial sector, researching safer substitutes must be a part of the solution.
