For decades, Prairie Rivers Network has protected the rivers and streams of Illinois. As we turn a new page in our efforts—to more aggressively address the water crisis building in Illinois and around the country—we are expanding our strategies to more broadly address the systemic issues impacting our waters. Beyond water quality, expanding our work into water equity, quantity, and access will transform the way people think about and care for our water at a much larger scale.
For example, countless municipal water systems across Illinois contend with nutrient pollution and other harmful chemicals. The cost to clean up this pollution to provide communities with safe drinking water is pushed onto consumers through their monthly water bills. This is not right. When we link these two problems together, we connect the dots and can build power for long term solutions that meet the scale of the problem. Here are two upcoming examples of how you can join PRN’s Clean Water Forever campaign and raise your voice.
Win for the Middle Fork River
We celebrated a major win this summer when Dynegy agreed to a court settlement to clean up toxic coal ash along the Middle Fork River, restoring Illinois’ only National Scenic River. For decades, the Vermilion Power Station had been dumping coal waste along the river, releasing a dangerous chemical soup that left a purple-orange sheen on the surface of the water. Dynegy will dig up approximately
3 million cubic yards of coal ash and move it to a landfill.
The settlement-mandated plan to remove the coal ash will be one of the first opportunities for the public to engage with Illinois’ coal ash regulations, which are on track for a big year in 2024. Years of advocacy to clean up the damage from decades of coal-fired power culminated with the 2019 passage of Illinois’ Coal Ash Pollution Prevention Act. Now, almost a dozen proposed closure plans for coal ash dumps across the state are sitting on desks at the Illinois EPA, undergoing a lengthy review.
The Vermilion coal ash closure plan will be among the first to move to a public comment process, where the strength of the regulations will be tested. PRN fought to ensure a voice for the public was included in every step of our coal ash regulations, and we expect that 2024 will be busy with public hearings.
Stopping Agricultural Pollution
After the recent release of the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy biennial report documenting increasing levels of agricultural pollution, PRN is raising the alarm and calling on elected officials to protect our water and hold polluters accountable. The report is released every two years as part of a plan by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and Illinois Department of Agriculture to monitor
water quality.
The state agencies have set goals to reduce by 45% the rates of nitrate-nitrogen and phosphorus, with a short-term goal of reducing nitrogen by 15% and phosphorus by 25% by the year 2025. The most recent numbers show that Illinois is nowhere near these targets, but instead increasing the amount of nutrient pollution entering our waters, impacting not only Illinois communities, but every community from here to the Gulf of Mexico. We cannot simply send our pollution down the Mississippi River. Our leaders here in Illinois must be held accountable.
PRN’s Clean Water Forever campaign will encourage the public and impacted communities to look upstream, raise their voice, and demand long term solutions to address the pollution poisoning our water.
