EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Weighs In In an editorial published in last Friday’s Los Angeles Times, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Lisa Jackson called on U.S. Representatives to stop their unrelenting assault on our nation’s landmark environmental laws, including “an unprecedented rollback of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and our nation’s waste-disposal laws, […]
Factory Farms
Prairie Rivers Network Goes Public with Livestock Industry Frustrations
In August 2011, Stacy James, Prairie Rivers Network’s specialist on agricultural pollution, attended a public informational meeting on a proposed 18,000-head hog farm called Shamrock Acres. The meeting was hosted by the Illinois Department of Agriculture and presentations were made by the applicant, his engineer, and a representative from the Illinois Livestock Development Group. During […]
Rural residents rally against proposed giant hog farm
In early June 2011, Prairie Rivers Network was contacted by a McDonough County resident facing the prospect of soon becoming the unwilling neighbor of 18,000 hogs. He was calling for help because he feared the air, streams, and wells in his rural community would become polluted by a proposed hog farm called Shamrock Acres. He […]
Update on Clean Water Funding Fairness Bill
After months of intense activity, the Illinois General Assembly’s spring session came to a screeching halt May 31, 2011. Prairie Rivers Network and our colleagues worked until the end to pass S.B. 1682, a bill that would establish a permit fee for livestock operations that discharge pollution into a river or stream. Unfortunately, legislator absences […]
Illinois Stream Turns Brown with Livestock Waste
On May 24, 2011, a biologist working for Prairie Rivers Network observed an unpermitted discharge of livestock waste into a small stream. The waste appeared to be coming from a cattle operation located near the stream, which is on Illinois EPA’s 303(d) list of impaired waters. Prairie Rivers Network staff immediately notified Illinois EPA and […]
