BP Doubles Initial Size Estimate of Lake Michigan Oil Spill

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Three days after spilling crude oil into Lake Michigan, BP has doubled its spill estimate to between 470 and 1228 gallons. The leak happened at its refinery in Whiting,ย Ind.

Although some of the oil has been cleaned up, it’s unclear how much is left in the lake, a drinking water source for about seven millionย Chicagoans.

Located just across the Illinois-Indiana state border, Whiting is home to the sixth largest refinery in the U.S. The refinery just went through a $4 billion โ€œmodernization project,โ€ giving it โ€œthe capability of processing up to about 85 percent heavy crude.โ€ That’s up from its original 20 percent, says BP‘sย website.

โ€œFrigid temperatures caused some of the oil to harden into a waxy consistency that made it easier to collect,โ€ BP spokesman Scott Dean told The Chicago Tribune. โ€œCrews used vacuum trucks to suck up any liquid oil that washedย ashore.โ€

The day after the spill,ย U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), as well as U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)ย and U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) issued press releases in which they pledged to hold BP accountable for the spill. Durbin and Kirk also wrote a follow-up letter to BP, requesting a meeting with BP.

โ€œAny unanticipated spill is cause for concern, but given the Whiting refineryโ€™s recent expansion of its operations to double the amount of heavy oil sands being processed, this spill raises questions about the long-term safety and reliability of BP‘s new, expanded production at Whiting,โ€ they wrote.ย 

Chicago Mayor (and President Obama’s former Chief-of-Staff) Rahm Emanuel had similar things toย say.

โ€œI expect a full accounting to the public,โ€ said Emanuel. โ€œI want a report on what happened, how it happened, why did it happen, how much happened and how do you prevent it from ever happeningย again.โ€

Though BP claims it’s โ€œrecovered the vast majority of oil that had been visible on the surface,โ€ questionsย remain.

For one, what type of oil was spilled? The refinery processes tar sands bitumen, which sinks in freshwater, a point alluded to in Kirk and Durbin’s letter to BP.

Video Shows Cleanup Crewย Offshore

According to a March 25 EPA press release, the โ€œU.S. Coast Guard has flown over the area and has not observed any visibleย sheen.โ€

EPA has also deployed a โ€œShoreline Cleanup Assessment Team,โ€ which consists of employees of the Coast Guard, EPA and BP. The team says it โ€œsaw minimal oiling of the shoreline and recommended a small manual removal crew conduct maintenance along the shorelineโ€ and posted some pictures of its cleanup effortsย online.

Using vacuum trucks to pick up oil; Photo Credit: U.S. EPA

The EPA‘s account has become the widely accepted one inย localย andย nationalย media. But aย video placed on The Chicago Tribune’s websiteย calls some of it intoย question.

The cleanup crewย can be seen hundreds of feet offshoreย in Lake Michigan, with a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter flying above them. BP denies any oil is still straggling in the lake farย offshore.

โ€œIt’s in the lake, yes, but it’s not moving around freely,โ€ย said Dean. โ€œIt’s been kind of contained because of the weather and of the geography of the lakefrontย there.โ€

BPย hasย aย historyย ofย playing downย theย sizeย andย impactsย of its spills. The 2010 Gulf of Mexico mega-spillย serves as Exhibit A.

As with the BP‘s Gulf of Mexico disaster, the company is running the show in Chicago, as โ€œpress calls to US EPA were routed directly to BP to answer,โ€ย according to the Natural Resources Defense Councilย (NRDC).

This isn’t the first time BP Whiting has been at the center ofย controversy.

The facility is the source of theย massive mounds of petcokeย currently burying portions of the southeast side of Chicago. Described by Oil Change International as the โ€œcoal hiding in the tar sandsโ€ because it can be co-burned in coal-fired power plants, until nowย petcoke storage was the hottest environmental issue in the Windy City.

On March 4,ย Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuitย against the Koch Industries subsidiary KCBX for spillingย petroleum cokeย (โ€œpetcokeโ€) into Lake Michigan at its holding facility on the Calumet River, a tributary into Lakeย Michigan.

Petcoke spilling into the Calumet River; Photo Credit:ย Lloydย DeGrange

โ€œWe Still Don’tย Knowโ€

In aย March 26 articleย about the oil spill, NRDC Midwest Program Directorย Henry Hendersonย said it’s too soon to take BP at its word about just how big or small the spill is and what its ongoing impacts may or may notย be.

โ€œ[I]tโ€™s still not clear what kind and how much oil made its way into Lake Michigan from the refinery. A day later, we still donโ€™t know.โ€ย wrote Henderson.ย โ€œThe public needs to know what has made its way into their drinking water sources and whether it is being adequatelyย cleaned.โ€

Photo Credit:ย U.S. EPA

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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