British Petroleum OK'd To Continue Dumping Mercury Into Lake Michigan

I'm not sure how much research you have done on mercury, but this is some nasty stuff. We really do not need this in our bodies, and these dirty people even pump it into you at birth. Do not go swimming in Lake Michigan.

A BP refinery in Indiana will be allowed to continue to dump mercury into Lake Michigan under a permit issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

The permit exempts the BP plant at Whiting, Ind., 3 miles southeast of Chicago, from a 1995 federal regulation limiting mercury discharges into the Great Lakes to 1.3 ounces per year.

The BP plant reported releasing 3 pounds of mercury through surface water discharges each year from 2002 to 2005, according to the Toxics Release Inventory, a database on pollution emissions kept by the Environmental Protection Agency that is based on information reported by companies.

The permit was issued July 21 in connection with the plant's $3.8 billion expansion, but only late last week began to generate public controversy. It gives the company until at least 2012 to meet the federal standard.

Full Article @ USA Today (notice it is in the MONEY section of the site)