June 22, 2017, Olympia, WA

National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) represented by the nonprofit law firm Earthjustice, challenged a Clean Air Act permit that allows BP to expand its Cherry Point refinery without adequate air quality protections. The expanded BP refinery will degrade the air quality at Olympic and North Cascades National Parks.

NPCA is urging a state hearings board to reconsider BP Cherry Point’s expansion permit, issued by the Washington State Department of Ecology. The current permit allows more oil to be processed and shipped without air quality protections that are required by law to protect the region’s iconic natural places.

“Locally, BP already has a dirty history when it comes to polluting the air in some of our most spectacular national lands,” said Janette Brimmer, Earthjustice attorney who drafted the lawsuit. “It’s time for Ecology to pull back BP’s expansion permit and take the required steps to improve air quality in our national parks.”

Specifically, BP’s permit fails to conform to the requirements for the Clean Air Act and federal and state regulations to ensure no adverse impacts to the air quality of national parks. The National Park Service determined that the refinery project will adversely impact the national parks.

The BP permit also fails to meet basic Clean Air legal requirements in that it does not require the best available technology to control and reduce air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. Such pollutants harm the parks and affect human health. Moreover, the permit also lacks adequate constraints on greenhouse gas pollution. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also sharply criticized the department’s work on the permit.

“BP Cherry Point is a major source of unhealthy haze and climate disrupting pollution in the Puget Sound region and negatively affects air quality in our treasured national parks,” said Rob Smith, director for the Northwest region at National Parks Conservation Association. “Washington’s Ecology Department must reconsider BP’s expansion permit and require it to do its part to reduce air pollution that mars our national parks and harms millions of visitors and residents who breathe it.”