British Petroleum announced this week that it would go ahead with the $3.8 billion expansion of its oil refinery in Whiting, IN, despite legal challenges from environmental groups. The Natural Resources Defense Council has filed a lawsuit alleging that emissions from the expanded facility will violate the Clean Air Act.
Ironically, the same day news broke about BP's expansion plans, a federal judge sided with the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in forcing Apex Oil Company to clean up ground pollution caused by its refinery in Hartford, IL:
The contamination posed "imminent and substantial endangerment" to humans and the environment under a federal law known as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Herndon ruled Monday out of the Southern District of Illinois. [...]
More than one million gallons of leaded gasoline and other petroleum products leaked into the ground, the lawsuit said. For years Hartford residents had to evacuate when vapors from contamination seeped into homes.
In addition to the EPA lawsuit, oil companies in Hartford are being confronted by a multitude of private lawsuits, as well as one from the village itself.
The fact that polluters are being held accountable here in Illinois is a good sign. But the situation in Hartford should have never occurred. Will we one day be saying the same thing about Whiting?
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