Protect Lake Michigan News

CHICAGO, Illinois—Industrial facilities dumped 8.8 million pounds of toxic chemicals into Illinois’s waterways, according to a report released today by Environment Illinois: Wasting Our Waterways: Industrial Toxic Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act. The report finds that toxic chemicals were discharged in 1,900 waterways across all 50 states.

“While nearly half of the rivers and lakes in the U.S. are considered too polluted for safe fishing or swimming, our report shows that polluters continue to use our waterways as dumping grounds for their toxic chemicals,” said Max Muller, Program Director with Environment Illinois.

The Environment Illinois report documents and analyzes the amounts of toxic pollutants discharged into America’s waters by compiling data on toxic chemical releases reported to the U.S. EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory for 2007, the most recent data available.

The report’s major findings include:

• Of the dozen waterways ranked highest in the nation for toxic discharges, four are in Illinois: The Ohio River ranked first in the nation with over 31 million pounds, the Mississippi ranked third with over 12.7 million pounds, and the Illinois and Rock Rivers ranked 11th and 12th, respectively.
• Tyson Fresh Meats released 3 million pounds of toxic chemical waste into the Rock River, a Mississippi tributary, in 2007, ranking it Illinois’s largest reported polluter of toxic chemicals in 2007—and the twelfth largest nationally.
• Industrial facilities discharged approximately 22,000 pounds of chemicals linked to cancer, 15,000 pounds of developmental toxicants, and 8,000 pounds of reproductive toxicants into Illinois lakes and rivers.
• Of the top dozen waterways receiving the highest levels of toxic discharge, four flow through Illinois: the Ohio River, the Mississippi river, the Rock River, and the Illinois River.
• Industrial facilities in four states discharged over 156,000 pounds of toxic chemicals into Lake Michigan. Just one facility, U.S. Steel’s Gary Works in Indiana, discharged over 1.6 million pounds into Lake Michigan and the Grand Calumet River, which drains into Lake Michigan.
• Nationally, industrial facilities released 232 million pounds of toxic chemicals into American waterways during 2007.

With facilities dumping so much pollution, no one should be surprised that nearly half of our waterways are unsafe for swimming and fishing. But we should be outraged. Environment Illinois’s report summarizes the discharge of cancer-causing chemicals, chemicals that persist in the environment, and chemicals with the potential to cause reproductive problems ranging from birth defects to reduced fertility. Among the toxic chemicals discharged by facilities are lead, mercury, and dioxin. When dumped into waterways, these toxic chemicals contaminate drinking water and are absorbed by the fish that people eventually eat. Exposure to these chemicals is linked to cancer, developmental disorders, and reproductive disorders. In 2007, manufacturing facilities discharged approximately 1.5 million pounds of cancer-causing chemicals into American waters.

“There are common-sense steps that should be taken to turn the tide against toxic pollution of our waters,” said Muller. “We need clean water now, and we need the state and federal governments to act to protect our health and our environment.”

In order to curb the toxic pollution threatening Illinois’s waters, Environment Illinois recommends the following:

1. Pollution Prevention: Industrial facilities should reduce their toxic discharges in to waterways by switching from hazardous chemicals to safer alternatives.
2. Tough permitting and enforcement: EPA and state agencies should issue permits with tough, numeric limits for each type of toxic pollution discharged, ratchet down those limits over time, and enforce those limits with credible penalties, not just warning letters.
3. Protect all waters: The federal government should adopt policies to clarify that the Clean Water Act applies to all of our waterways. This includes the thousands of headwaters and small streams for which jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act has been called into question, as a result of recent court decisions.

“Almost 40 years after passage of the CWA, we still have toxic rivers. It's time for state regulators to recognize that people value clean water. Illinois should strengthen enforcement of the CWA by increasing inspections and imposing harsh penalties on repeat offenders,” said Glynnis Collins, Executive Director of the Prairie Rivers Network.

"We urge Congress and the President to listen to the public’s demands for clean water. They should act to protect all of our lakes, rivers and streams from toxic pollution," said Muller.

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Read the full report.