Protect Lake Michigan
Millions of gallons of untreated sewage pour into Lake Michigan every year, forcing more than 500 beach closings per year since 2005. Shortsighted Supreme Court decisions have left more than half of Illinois’s streams vulnerable to pollution — including streams that flow into Lake Michigan. The EPA can fix this problem by updating clean water standards, but polluters and their allies are threatening to block them. To protect Lake Michigan, we need to show massive public support for clean water.
Lake Michigan at risk
Whether we’re fishing off a dock, swimming at Oak Street Beach or sailing along the coast, Lake Michigan is a huge part of what we love about Illinois. Yet the lakes’s waters face serious toxins — from sewage overflows, development, unrestricted pollution and more. Environment Illinois is working to rein in the pollution, and restore Lake Michigan to health.
Millions of gallons of sewage pollute Lake Michigan
State officials estimate that millions of gallons of untreated sewage flow into Lake Michigan each year. The consequences are clear.
During the summer, beaches up and down our state’s 60 miles of shoreline are flagged for bacteria levels above state standards, and swimmers are told to stay away.
Clean Water Act loopholes leave half of our streams unprotected
Over the past decade, polluters and irresponsible developers have used the courts to strip Clean Water Act protections from small streams and wetlands.
More than half of Illinois’s streams and hundreds of acres of wetlands are vulnerable to pollution and development as a result. Polluters can dump garbage into streams, developers can pave over wetlands to build strip malls, and the cops on the environmental beat can’t do a thing about it. And it’s not just small streams and wetlands that will suffer — these waterways are the same ones that feed Lake Michigan and help to keep it clean.
The EPA can protect Lake Michigan — but Congress threatens to stand in the way
The Environmental Protection Agency is moving to update clean water standards to reduce pollution in Lake Michigan, but polluters and their allies in Congress are trying to block them. We need to show overwhelming public support for tough clean water standards to protect Lake Michigan and all of our waterways.
This spring, we and our allies across the country submitted more than 170,000 petitions to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, urging her to restore protections to all of our waters and cut sewage pollution. In April, she announced a plan to do just that.
But polluters’ allies in Congress won’t give up — and now they’re threatening to stop the EPA from doing its job. At the same time, powerful corporate interests are preparing for battle: ExxonMobil threatened “legal warfare” if the EPA moves forward with its plan to restore Clean Water Act protections.
Our plan to defend Lake Michigan
We refuse to let polluters and their allies in Congress open our precious waterways to more dumping and development. We’re bringing together Illinois residents from all walks of life to protect Lake Michigan. From anglers to sailing enthusiasts, clergy to scientists, local officials to ordinary families, we all have a stake in keeping our water clean.
Our citizen outreach staff has been knocking on doors across the state, educating Illinois residents about what’s at stake. But if we’re going to push past ExxonMobil and other powerful polluters, we’re going to need everyone who cares about Lake Michigan to get involved.
Tell the Environmental Protection Agency that you love Lake Michigan, and want to see it protected.
Key facts
- More than half of Illinois’s streams and hundreds of acres of wetlands are vulnerable to pollution and development.
- Millions of gallons of untreated sewage flow into Lake Michigan every year.
- There are more than 500 beach closings in Illinois every year.