More press is covering the new Big Price – Little Benefit report released by Prairie Rivers Network and partners condemning proposed expansion locks along the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers.

Read press coverage from the Daily-Journal.com by seraching on “Prairie Rivers Network.”

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Prairie Rivers Network is holding polluters accountable when the EPA fails to enforce the law. A coal mine near Industry, Illinois, has violated its permit by discharging pollution (such as iron, manganese, and sulfates) at levels several times higher than allowed. Prairie Rivers Network and partners launched a lawsuit against the two coal companies that have owned the mine. The case caught the attention of Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who is now taking the case against the mine to the Illinois Pollution Control Board.

Read press coverege here from McDonough County The Voice.

Yesterday, Prairie Rivers Network and our partners in the Nicollet Island Coalition released a report condemning proposed expansion of 7 of the 29 locks that aid navigation along the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers got Congressional authorization in 2007 to double the size of the locks, at a potential cost to taxpayers of $2.2 billion. Our report shows that the modest benefits the project aims to achieve can be achieved much more cheaply through other means. View our press release here. Download the Big Price – Little Benefit report here.

Tri-States Public Radio (Macomb, IL) covered the story.

The toll on river health of the Corps-maintained navigation system on the Upper Mississippi River is tremendous – the 29 locks and dams have altered the free-flowing and dynamic river between Minneapolis and St. Louis into a static series of enormous, homogeneous reservoirs. {Continue Reading »}

Asian carp jumping out of the Illinois River near Havana, IL

Invasive Asian Carp have been detected only six miles from Lake Michigan in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, past an electric barrier designed to keep them out of the Great Lakes. The Asian Carp Rapid Response Workgroup completed operations in late November 2009 involving intensive fishing and a major rotenone application to kill all fish in a six mile stretch of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in an effort locate and halt the spread of the carp invasion.

This was a drastic measure, taken because much is at stake if Asian carp are able to reach and populate Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes. But we can’t let this drastic event become an ongoing management measure. Nor can we allow this manmade gateway between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River Basin to remain open and available as a conduit for further invasion to both basins. While the current threat is from invasive Asian carp to Lake Michigan, we shouldn’t lose sight of the threat posed to Illinois rivers and streams from this connection; this was the pathway for invasion of the zebra mussels into much of the eastern half of the United States. We must call on the State of Illinois and the Army Corps of Engineers to act immediately to close all connections between the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, adjacent waterways including the Des Plaines River and the I&M Cnanal, and Lake Michigan. Take action here!

Learn more about the threat of Asian Carp to our rivers and Great Lakes and what must be done to ensure protection of our aquatic resources here.

Point Source Pollution (photo credit: www.flickr.com/photos/thoth-god/)

Prairie Rivers Network, in partnership with the Sierra Club and the Environmental Law and Policy Center, has filed a notice of intent to sue Freeman United Coal Mining Company, regarding repeated and excessive violations of the Clean Water Act.

The Industry Mine, near Macomb, has over 300 documented exceedances of their NPDES permit since July, 2003. You can read the press release here and review the violations here. {Continue Reading »}

PRN’s Water Resources Scientist, Stacy James, reminds our neighbors, in a letter to the editor recently published in The News-Gazette, that raking leaves is the best way to clean up:

It’s autumn, and the leaves are falling once again, covering lawns and choking storm sewers. It’s time to get out the rakes.

Yet far too often, lawn care companies and residents waste gas on small jobs that don’t warrant an engine. Not only are leaf blowers incredibly loud, they also stir up dust, mold and allergens. Running one produces polluted emissions equivalent to that of several cars. If you want to make a difference in the wake of dwindling fuels and a warming planet, the increased use of muscle power is a clean and healthy step to take.