WHITING, Ind. (AP) — A coalition of environmentalists is accusing an Indiana official of not giving them enough time to review a draft air permit for BP’s planned $3.8 billion Whiting refinery expansion.

Twelve environmental groups last month had asked Tom Easterly, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management commissioner, for a two-month extension of the deadline for public comment on the proposed permit.

The groups also asked that an informational meeting on the draft permit — a technical document released Feb. 5 that runs for thousands of pages — and a public hearing to take comments on it be held on separate days, not the same evening. The company must have the air permit approved before work can begin on the project

Holding the meeting and hearing back-to-back “diminishes the effectiveness of the public hearing as a forum for informed discussion” the groups’ wrote, adding that the public would “not have sufficient time to assimilate any information.”

But Easterly announced Feb. 8 that IDEM had moved the informational meeting and the public hearing from Feb. 25 to March 14, giving the groups about two extra weeks.

In a Feb. 20 letter to Easterly, the coalition said that is not nearly enough time to review the 1,351 pages of the permit itself — or the 6,410-page total that includes appendices and compliance records.

“If someone were to spend just five minutes looking at each document, just that initial review would require more than 500 hours. And this is not even the complete set of documents,” wrote Ann Alexander, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

She also said providing extra time for activists and the public to review the permit would have helped avoid the public uproar last summer over BP’s new water permit for the refinery. Alexander said concern over the increase pollution discharges that permit allows arose from “the perceived lack of transparency and opportunity for public participation.”

That controversy prompted BP in August to announce that it would either find a way to stay within the limits set in its previous discharge permit or drop the expansion plans for the refinery about 20 miles southeast of Chicago.

In his Feb. 27 response to the groups, Easterly said the March 14 date for the meeting and hearing “will provide the public additional time to analyze the permit and prepare comments.”

IDEM spokesman Rob Elstro said the meeting at the Hammond Civic Center was not required and was offered “as a courtesy.”

“It gives the public the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the draft permit in an open forum,” Elstro said.

Public comments are being accepted until March 24.

Posted 3/3/2008