Vernon Ehlers: “I do deplore that the State of Indiana was willing to give them a permit. I do deplore that the Environmental Protection…”

“I do deplore that the State of Indiana was willing to give them a permit. I do deplore that the Environmental Protection Agency was willing to give them a permit. This is contrary to everything that we have been trying to do to clean up the Great Lakes, at huge expense. All over the Great Lakes, communities have tried to clean it up, and my preference would be not only that BP does not add to the load they're putting in the lake, I would prefer that they say, we're going to find a different method, and we're not even going to dump in the lake what we're dumping in now, because they are already dumping a substantial amount in. The goal here is not to drive BP away. It's not to stop the refinery project. I'd emphasize that over and over. The goal is to make sure that we can maintain the purity and cleanliness of the Great Lakes. And Lake Michigan, of course, drains into three of the other Great Lakes and with a smattering going into Lake Superior. So this is a very important issue. Forty million Americans draw their water out of the Great Lakes, their drinking water.”