FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2012

Mississippi River Groups Hit EPA with Dual Legal Actions on Pollution that Fuels Gulf Dead Zone 

(New Orleans, LA)— Today environmental groups challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) refusal to address a critical pollution problem it has acknowledged for decades. The two legal actions filed today seek action from the agency on nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, which stimulates excessive growth of algae, kick-starting a biological process that severely depletes oxygen levels in aquatic ecosystems and chokes marine life. An enormous example of this problem is the “Dead Zone” that forms in the Gulf of Mexico in the summer. In addition, toxic algae blooms result in fish kills, the death of livestock and pets, and damage to drinking water supplies. Addressing Dead Zone pollution is thus necessary to restore health to the Gulf of Mexico and upstream waters of the Mississippi River Basin.

“The ecology and economy of the Gulf of Mexico have paid the price for EPA’s endless dithering about Dead Zone pollution,” said Matt Rota, Director of Science and Water Policy with the non-profit Gulf Restoration Network. “The most meaningful action the EPA can take is to set limits on the amount of these pollutants allowed in theMississippi River watershed so that the fish and the fisheries can recover.”

Members of the Mississippi River Collaborative, represented by the Natural Resources Defense Council, are challenging EPA’s denial of a 2008 petition to the agency asking EPA to establish quantifiable standards and clean up plans for Dead Zone pollution. Separately, several conservation groups are seeking to compel EPA to finally respond to an even older petition – a 2007 request that EPA modernize its decades-old pollution standards for sewage treatment plants and include the Dead Zone pollutants nitrogen and phosphorus in those standards.

“Decisive EPA action on Dead Zone pollutants is a decade overdue,” said Glynnis Collins, Executive Director of Illinois-based Prairie Rivers Network. “Illinois is the biggest contributor of pollution that creates this yearly crisis. With little action coming from the state, we clearly need an external push to be a more responsible neighbor.” {Continue Reading »}

Stream brown with livestock waste from nearby factory farm

BY STACY JAMES

Prairie Rivers Network works with partners across the state to reduce water pollution from factory farms. Livestock waste pollutes Illinois’ water with disease-causing bacteria, antibiotics, ammonia, nitrates and algae blooms. In the most egregious cases, streams turn brown with raw sewage that kills all wildlife inhabitants. Pollution happens when waste storage structures leak or spill, a far too common occurrence that often goes undetected until there is a fish kill. Another way that streams become polluted is when too much manure is applied to farm fields as fertilizer and rain or melting snow carries the waste into nearby streams.

Factory farms are one of the least-regulated sources of pollution. Some regulations exist but they do not require adequately stringent manure management practices. State government is also underfunded to inspect factory farms and prevent problems from happening in the first place.

Consequently, we are seeking changes at the state level that would make a significant impact on Illinois’ rivers. We are focused on strengthening the rules that govern factory farms, and increasing the revenue available to the Illinois EPA for inspections. Fortunately, these efforts are proving fruitful, and we have made new allies along the way.

2 Steps Toward Cleaner Water

After two years of advocating for rule changes that would require more responsible livestock waste management, the Illinois EPA adopted several of our recommendations! The draft rules limit how much manure and liquid waste can be applied to farm fields. Applicators will be prohibited from applying waste close to ditches and other conduits that lead to streams. And the waste storage capacity requirements will be increased, so that overflows and untimely land application are less likely to occur. {Continue Reading »}

Guest Blog Post by Dr. Walt Kelly, Groundwater Geochemist

Read Walt’s Blog: Water Quality, Focus on Illinois

The award winning documentary Bag It will be shown at the Art Theater in downtown Champaign on Tuesday, September 20, 2011, at 7 PM. I have seen the film and highly recommend it. It starts out as a critical look at plastic bags, but ends up being a much broader examination of the effects of plastic on the environment and human society.

Spoiler alert: the film has a point of view, and it’s that our overreliance on plastic products is bad for us and the environment. The negative effects of degraded plastic on marine life is especially distressing. {Continue Reading »}

New state rules finally require water to be clean enough for safe boating, fishing, and swimming

It’s been a long process, but the work and wait was worth it for the growing number of people who are using Chicago Area Waterways such as the Chicago River for boating, fishing and swimming. On August 18th, the Illinois Pollution Control Board approved the proposed recreational use standards that Prairie Rivers Network and a host of partners have been advocating for since October 2007.

After a record number of hearings (the most on any pollution issue in Illinois) and calls for action from US EPA, our Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk, Congressman Mike Quigley, and Attorney General Lisa Madigan and many others, the new river rules finally protect the people who use the river. That means our rules now recognize that thousands of people are in and on the river and that they have a right to be there. {Continue Reading »}

New pollution standards will mean Chicago sewage gets disinfected

On May 11th, the USEPA told Illinois EPA that if they don’t insist on tougher pollution standards for the Chicago River, the Cal-Sag Channel and the Little Calumet River “promptly,” then USEPA will do it for them. This news was greeted with agreement from various environmental groups who have long argued for the river to be made cleaner, as was covered on Chicago’s ABC- TV station, WLS. Read the letter from USEPA here.

This is great news for the growing numbers of people who are using these waters for boating, fishing, and swimming.  Right now, the treated sewage that makes up a large amount of the water in the Chicago River, the Cal-Sag Channel and the Little Calumet River is not disinfected. This puts people at risk of contracting illnesses when they are in and on the water. Chicago is the only major city in America (and the industrialized world) that does not disinfect its sewage (yuck!). In fact, this daily discharge of 1.2 billion gallons of undisinfected sewage into the Chicago River system has earned the river a place on the annual list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers. People are talking, as no city (especially with a new mayor!), would want to be in the headlines for such a designation.

With new standards in place, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, which operates Cook County’s sewage treatment plants, will likely have to disinfect sewage at the massive Calumet and Northside Wastewater Treatment Plants that dump to the Chicago River, the Cal-Sag Channel and the Little Calumet River.

The Chicago waterways were little more than an open sewer for nearly a hundred years. The 1972 Clean Water Act slowly resulted in cleaner water, so that we now have the opportunity for much more – for an asset and amenity running through the heart of the city to complement the gem that is Lake Michigan. USEPA’s action is yet another development, like the Asian carp crisis and our lawsuit against the Water District for illegal pollution, that point towards the need to re-think how we live with the waterways. Now is the time to re-invent the Chicago River and canals to provide upgraded wastewater and transportation infrastructure, world-class recreational and tourism opportunities, and healthy waters and people.

This post was updated on May 19, 2011 to reflect new press coverage.

Illegal sewage discharges mucking waterways from Chicago to Gulf of Mexico

For immediate release: March 1, 2011

CHICAGO (March 1, 2011) – Water pollution illegally dumped from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s (MWRD’s) three sewage treatment plants and combined sewer overflow pipes has created a plume of harmful impacts stretching from Chicago all the way to the Gulf of Mexico according to notice of a suit delivered to MWRD today. Wastewater discharged by MWRD exceeds federal water pollution limits and violates state-issued permits. The problem is so severe that it wipes out oxygen in the water after big rains, and causes harmful, stinking mats of algae to form downstream of the MWRD plants.

“MWRD has flat-out admitted in its own reports that pollution from its sewer overflows harms the Chicago area waters it is supposed to be protecting,” said Ann Alexander, Senior Attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “They have spent three decades and billions of dollars on a Tunnel and Reservoir Project that was supposed to fix the overflow problem – and all the flooding, discharges to Lake Michigan, odors, and ‘floatables’ that come with it. We’re not willing to wait decades more for the District to comply with the law and clean up our waters.”

NRDC, Sierra Club and Prairie Rivers Network have given MWRD a legally-required 60-day notice of their intent to sue over the regional water regulator’s admitted pollution problem (notice, attachments). The notice points to discharges of pollution from treatment plants that regularly violate federal standards requiring that discharges not cause or contribute to unnatural sludge or growth of algae, which harms other forms of life in the water. Those standards further require that the water contain sufficient dissolved oxygen for fish to breathe.

{Continue Reading »}