Speaking of BP (yet again), seems like facts about BP's faux green-ness keep bubbling to the surface, in this case, when residents of Munster, Indiana complained. You'd think a corporation with such massive quarterly profit margins would be able to maintain their own infrastructure, but I guess their advertising budget has consumed all the extra cash. Or something.
cbs2chicago.com - BP Cleans Up Oily Mess In Munster, Ind.:
BP officials say the source of the oil pipeline leak that got into storm sewers and caused a strong odor in a Munster neighborhood Monday night was a seeping, inactive pipe.
Officials have yet to determine whether there are any more leaks in two idle pipelines in the area
... Residents along Somerset Drive near St. James Place called the Munster Fire Department around 7 p.m. Monday to report a fuel odor that turned out to be an oil pipeline leak.“My wife called it in. I kept smelling whiffs of it. It started getting real strong around 6 p.m. I'm wondering if the area's contaminated. My neighbor says he smelled it two years ago,” said James Aerts, who lives a few houses from where the leak was detected. “It was in my garage, on my front porch, everywhere.”
Workers determined the smell came from storm sewers, and dug manholes to backtrack the leak from the point in the sewer system where the oil was detected to the pipeline.
The leak was traced to a pipe at St. James Place just off the Somerset intersection. From the storm sewer system, the oil flowed into a retention pond behind Somerset residences.
...
Resident Gene Kelly said he smelled fuel inside his house, located right by the leak. He said he would have liked BP to inform him what was going on rather than having to read it in the newspaper. “I'm concerned about the safety of the house, the smell lingering,” he told BP officials, when they came by.IDEM spokesman Steve Polston said IDEM will oversee the cleanup and inspect whether environmental standards are being met. He couldn't say whether BP would face any penalties.
BP says not to worry, industrial contamination is good for you. Plus, having to comply with environmental regulations has killed more people than Hilter (sic).
