GLIN==> Serial Spillers: Suit Announced to Limit MWRD Water Pollution

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Press contact:       Josh Mogerman, NRDC, 312-651-7909 

                                Jack Darin, Sierra Club, 312-251-1680
x112  

                                Kim Knowles, Prairie Rivers Network, 314
341 1641

 

Serial Spillers: Suit Announced to Limit MWRD Water Pollution

Illegal sewage discharges mucking waterways from Chicago to Gulf of
Mexico

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. 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. 

MWRD manages water infrastructure in the nearly 900 square mile region
around Chicagoland. This includes the area's sewer lines and sewage
treatment plants, most notably the three plants that are the subject of
the coming lawsuit - Calumet, North Side, and Stickney.  These plants,
the largest in Illinois, release over a billion gallons of wastewater
every day to Chicago waters containing large amounts of phosphorus.
Excess phosphorus acts as an unnatural fertilizer triggering growth of
algae that blocks sunlight needed by other aquatic life, sucks the
oxygen out of the water, and can potentially be toxic.  It is also a
major cause of the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, a huge area in the
Gulf where fish and other forms of life cannot survive. Chicago waters,
which consist primarily of effluent from the MWRD plants, have been
shown to be the largest single contributor of phosphorus to the Dead
Zone. As treatment plants around the region address phosphorus, MWRD
falls behind results achieved by water systems in many Midwestern cities
and towns, including Detroit, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis.

MWRD's water infrastructure also includes dozens of outfalls for
discharge of untreated sewage combined with storm water during rain
events that overwhelm the District's treatment plants.  The sewer system
of Chicago, like many older cities, combines waste water with storm
water, sending both through the same system of pipes to the sewage
treatment plants that are spread around the Chicago area. Because the
system is combined, stormwater floods the pipes beyond the capacity of
sewage treatment plants, forcing raw sewage and rain water directly to
Chicago waters through overflow pipes.  The release of raw sewage from
MWRD's plants can kill fish, because it takes away the oxygen the fish
need to breathe.  The District's own reports state that the waters
receiving its combined sewer overflows violate dissolved oxygen
standards more than 70 percent of the time in some parts of the Chicago
River. 

"The MWRD over the years has taken many major steps to clean up the
Chicago area waterways and the Upper Illinois River, but we still have
raw sewage in the Chicago River after a heavy rain,"  said Jack Darin,
Director of the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club.  "MWRD has shown
they are very good at solving pollution problems when they set their
minds to it, and it's past time for them to tackle the raw sewage
overflow problem."

"Instead of working to protect our waters, MWRD has spent our tax
dollars trying to prove that the rivers are too trashed to bother with,"
said Kim Knowles, Staff Attorney with Prairie Rivers Network, referring
to the ongoing hearings before the Illinois Pollution Control Board
concerning Illinois EPA's proposal to improve water quality standards in
Chicago area waterways.  "But what they've inadvertently proven is that
the degradation is their own fault."  

MWRD's discharges are subject to the Clean Water Act's National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program.  In
Illinois, the IEPA manages this process on behalf of the USEPA, and last
permitted MWRD's facilities in 2002.  New draft permits have been
pending since 2009, and USEPA recently wrote a letter to Illinois EPA
criticizing the drafts for their failure to address the problem of
phosphorus discharges contributing to growth of algae, among other
problems.  The draft permits include a non-enforceable schedule
specifying that the Tunnel and Reservoir Project, designed to address
the sewer overflows, will be completed by 2024, and an MWRD presentation
during permit hearings pushed that date back to 2029.

The three plaintiffs in this lawsuit have also been battling MWRD in the
Pollution Control Board hearings on the question of whether the District
should be required to disinfect its sewage effluent, as is done in
almost all other major cities across the nation.  

 

In a recent settlement with the USEPA and US Department of Justice, one
of the central solutions to similar issues in Cleveland-area waterways
is a significant embrace of large-scale green infrastructure projects
that use natural systems and materials to hold and clean water in heavy
storm events. This green infrastructure can be part of a comprehensive
and cost-effective way for cities to address combined sewer overflow
problems and improve water quality.  Other cities throughout the
Midwest, including Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Aurora, Illinois; and Lenaxa,
Kansas, are using green infrastructure to reduce the frequency and
severity of combined sewer overflows, while improving neighborhoods and
reducing infrastructure costs. Additionally, the work in Cleveland has
been estimated to produce 30,000 jobs in northeast Ohio. 

 

Additional Resources:

*         The 60 Day Notice Letter (including supporting links and
attachments) is available at http://docs.nrdc.org/water/wat_11030101.asp
<http://docs.nrdc.org/water/wat_11030101.asp>  

*          "Re-Envisioning the Chicago River"
<http://www.nrdc.org/water/chicagoriver/chicagoriver.asp>  highlights
potential positive impacts from the use of green technologies to relieve
pressure on the stressed water infrastructure throughout Chicagoland:  

*         "Rooftops to Rivers
<http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/rooftops/rooftops.pdf> " looks at
current uses of green technologies 

###

 

______________________________________

Thomas Cmar

Natural Resources Defense Council

2 N. Riverside Plaza, Ste. 2250

Chicago, IL 60606

(312) 651-7906

tcmar at nrdc.org

 

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