Senators Richardville, Birkholz, Kuipers, Van Woerkom, Patterson, Sanborn, Kahn, Pappageorge, Jansen and Basham offered the following resolution:

            Senate Resolution No. 90.

            A resolution to memorialize the Congress of the United States and Indiana Department of Environmental Management to stop the increased dumping of pollutants into Lake Michigan by the British Petroleum refinery in Indiana.

            Whereas, The Indiana Department of Environmental Management recently issued a permit to the British Petroleum (BP) refinery in Whiting, Indiana, that would allow the refinery to increase polluted discharges into Lake Michigan. The permit would allow 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more suspended solids to be discharged into Lake Michigan; and

            Whereas, These increased discharges have the potential to affect public health and the health of fish and wildlife that depend on clean water not only in Indiana, but the other three states bordering Lake Michigan. Millions of people in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana depend on Lake Michigan for drinking water, swimming, and fishing; and

            Whereas, The Great Lakes states and the federal government are currently making a concerted collaborative effort to restore and protect the Great Lakes. This is not the time to provide an exemption from longstanding policy prohibiting increased discharges to the Great Lakes and the use of mixing zones without a clear understanding that there will be no impact on public health or the ecology of the Great Lakes; now, therefore, be it

            Resolved by the Senate, That we urge the Congress of the United States and Indiana Department of Environmental Management to suspend the approval for increased dumping of pollutants into Lake Michigan until a full review is completed and confirms no impacts on waters or water-dependent natural resources of the lake; and be it further

            Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the members of the Michigan congressional delegation, the Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and the Governor of the state of Indiana.