For 45 years, Prairie Rivers Network has been working to foster a healthy environment, healthy people, and healthy communities. We have accomplished a lot in those years thanks to the continued support of our members and dedicated, passionate conservationists throughout Illinois.

Protecting Natural Areas Along our Rivers

Prairie Rivers Network is working with local residents and other organizations to fight a dirty and destructive sand mine right on the doorstep of Starved Rock State Park. Our efforts have raised the visibility of the issue and garnered the support of Lieutenant Governor Sheila Simon and the Illinois River Coordinating Council.

Next step: Explore legal options to achieve needed reforms in permitting process.

Our work keeps paying dividends long after the victories are won. One example is the return of bald eagles to the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River. Thirty years ago, activists (including Prairie Rivers Network founders) fought a plan to dam the river and later won protections that allowed 11,000 acres along 17 miles of the river to begin recovery from a legacy of coal strip mining. Today, a nesting pair of bald eagles has returned to the Middle Fork for the third year — they have hatched five chicks so far!

Next step: Proper closure of Vermilion Power Plant ash ponds currently leaking into Middle Fork of Vermilion River.

Prairie Rivers Network and Friends of the Big Bureau Creek Watershed launched a successful farmer outreach campaign in the Big Bureau Creek Watershed in north-central Illinois. As a result of our efforts, many farmers have signed up for Farm Bill conservation programs that reduce erosion and nutrient runoff.

Next step: Develop and implement policies to increase the use of these practices across Illinois.

Bringing Voices of the People to Elected Officials

Prairie Rivers Network has launched a collaborative effort to separate the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins. Separation will protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp, improve the Chicago River, and protect both basins from infestation by other invaders via Chicago’s canal system. People and organizations are signing on to the coalition’s principles, letting us show Governor Quinn and other elected officials the existing broad-based public support for definitive action on the carp crisis.

Next step: Expand the coalition and engage Chicago in planning for separation.

Our campaign in Vermilion County is empowering local residents to fight a new coal mine that threatens their water and their communities. With the legal and technical support of Prairie Rivers Network, local residents understand and influence the backroom deals and bureaucratic processes behind such projects.

Next step: Challenge water deal between coal mining company and local municipality that threatens water supplies.

Holding Polluters Accountable

A new Illinois law requires factory farm owners to pay a permit fee to the Illinois EPA for water pollution permits. All other polluting facilities have paid permit fees for years. Through the permit fees, factory farm owners, rather than the taxpayers, will finally support the state’s program to regulate their pollution. Prairie Rivers Network first proposed such a law last year, and has worked with concerned residents, lawmakers, and the Illinois EPA to get it passed.

Next step: Strengthen Illinois laws to further reduce factory farm pollution.

The coal industry is working hard to strip the EPA of its authority to protect groundwater from coal ash pollution, a by-product of burning coal. This Spring, industry supporters in Congress attached a rider to a transportation bill that would have forbidden EPA from passing new protective rules. Prairie Rivers Network mobilized our members, our partners and residents living with coal ash pollution to ask Senator Durbin for help in bolstering the wavering resolve of some colleagues who were facing intense industry pressure.

In the final hours, the bad coal ash rider was removed from the transportation bill. We thank Senator Durbin for his pivotal work.

Next step: Continue to wage a multi-pronged state and national campaign for safer coal ash rules.

The Illinois Pollution Control Board has agreed with Prairie Rivers Network, the Environmental Law and Policy Center, and The Sierra Club that Industry Mine violated its permit more than 600 times!

Industry Mine Photo credit: InIllinoisWater.org

The Industry Coal Mine in McDonough and Schuyler Counties has been getting away with polluting local waterways for years. But on November 16, 2012, the Illinois Pollution Control Board determined that the irresponsible operation of this mine will not go unpunished.

The Board’s ruling is a great victory for the people living in the watersheds of Camp Creek, Willow Creek, and Grindstone Creek, as well as the Lamoine River Ecosystem Partnership, whose members have been fighting for years to stop the pollution from the mine.

The Board agreed with Prairie Rivers Network and our partners that Industry Mine violated its permit 624 times over a period of 8 years. The violations included unlawful discharges of iron, manganese, sulfates, acid, and total suspended solids–enough pollution to pose serious threats to water quality. Until we took action, nothing had been done by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources or the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to stop the pollution or to hold the mine owners accountable for their flagrant noncompliance.

Springfield Coal Company, the current owner of Industry Mine, is seeking to open two new strip mines near Canton and Littleton. We believe the new coal mines will pose serious risks to Canton’s public drinking water supply and to the high quality woodlands and streams in these communities.

Prairie Rivers Network has been working with Canton Area Citizens for Environmental Issues and other local residents to prevent Springfield Coal Company from setting up or expanding its coal operations in their communities.

The Board will hold a hearing to determine the amount of penalties they will impose on the owners of Industry Mine. Please stay tuned for hearing details and information about how you can help us to make a strong case for the maximum penalties allowable under the law.

On June 10, 2012, the clock ran out on Shamrock Acres. This proposed 18,000 head hog operation was slated to be built in McDonough County south of Macomb. But most nearby residents did not want to live next to so many hogs, with its associated odors and potential for water pollution. And so they formed a group called Rural Residents for Responsible Agriculture and launched a successful campaign to oppose construction.

Part of their campaign strategy was to contact Prairie Rivers Network and ask for assistance. We were concerned about Shamrock Acres because it was to be located in an area already well-populated with large hog operations. Shamrock Acres would have drained into Sugar Creek, which is on the state list of impaired waters due to fecal coliform pollution. We were also concerned that the applicant had recently received a violation notice from the IEPA for water pollution violations at his cattle operation. {Continue Reading »}

The U.S. Congress voted 52-47 in favor of relinking conservation compliance to crop insurance in the next Farm Bill! This is a huge victory, and we are grateful that Illinois Senator Dick Durbin voted in favor of the amendment. We are also grateful to those of you who responded to our call-to-action and contacted your Senators to support the amendment.

If the House version of the Farm Bill also supports conservation compliance,  farmers who receive crop insurance subsidies will have to control erosion and conserve wetlands. We think that’s more than a fair deal in exchange for the billions of taxpayer dollars that subsidize crop insurance premiums each year.

What’s next? The Senate may vote on the entire Farm Bill later this week, and then the House Agriculture Committee will draft their version of the Farm Bill after the Fourth of July recess. Illinois has three Congressman on the House Agriculture Committee: Hultgren, Johnson, and Schilling. Therefore, we will be calling on you in the near future to contact these legislators and urge their support for conservation compliance in the House Farm Bill.

Prairie Rivers Network works with local agencies and citizens to finalize action plan that will advance Vermilion River conservation

Prairie Rivers Network, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, has completed a plan to protect wildlife in the Vermilion River Conservation Opportunity Area. These efforts have also resulted in the formation of a grassroots group—the Vermilion River Wildlife Conservation Partnership—dedicated to the protection of wildlife habitat. The finalization of the plan and the formation of the Partnership mean that wildlife conservation projects along the Vermilion River in East-Central Illinois should result in more funding for wildlife conservation projects. There will also be more coordination among nearby projects with shared regional goals, improving the effectiveness of wildlife protection and restoration efforts.

The Vermilion River Conservation Opportunity Area has been identified by the Department of Natural Resources as an area that warrants special wildlife and habitat protection efforts because of the relatively healthy natural resources there, and due to the presence of people and groups with an interest in protecting those resources. It covers over 790,000 acres in Champaign, Vermilion, Ford, Iroquois, and Edgar counties, and encompasses the Middle Fork, North Fork, and Salt Fork of the Vermilion River. The Area is home to over 162 animals listed as “Species in Greatest Need of Conservation” in the Illinois Wildlife Action Plan. {Continue Reading »}

By Glynnis Collins & Kim Knowles

This March, Prairie Rivers Network joined our Mississippi River Collaborative partners in launching two lawsuits against US EPA for their failure to regulate nutrient pollution.

Too many nutrients – a problem

Most people know that nitrogen and phosphorus are important nutrients for plants and animals. At high levels in water, however, the beneficial effects of these nutrients become problematic, and the nutrients are considered pollution.

Nitrate, a form of nitrogen, is toxic to people and other animals at high levels. A decade ago, Georgetown, Illinois had to abandon its drinking water reservoir because of high nitrate levels. Water suppliers for Decatur, Danville, and Streator had to install expensive ion exchange systems costing millions of dollars to remove nitrate from polluted reservoir water. Ongoing operation and maintenance expenses cost ratepayers tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

In rivers and lakes, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution stimulates excessive growth of algae, creating ugly mats or pea-soup scummy water. When the algae die, they rot. The bacteria that decompose them use up most or even all of the oxygen in the water, choking aquatic life. An enormous example of this problem is the “Dead Zone” that forms in the Gulf of Mexico every summer.

Especially in lakes and reservoirs, nutrient pollution can stimulate the growth of blue-green algae. This “pond scum” is unsightly and smells like vomit when it rots – enough to keep people from enjoying boating and swimming. The algae also sometimes release toxic chemicals into the water. Each summer, local communities throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois are forced to officially close beaches because of the potential presence of blue-green algae toxins. The toxins can sicken or even kill people, pets, and livestock.

Watch a video on Dead Zone pollution.

{Continue Reading »}