“Putting economics above public safety and the environment appears to be a pervasive practice” at BP, said ELPC senior attorney Faith Bugel. “If there’s a loophole, the practice appears to be to find their way through it. Our concern is that what happened in the Gulf doesn’t happen here.”

Read the full article in the New York Times

“The US EPA is stepping up to protect children’s health, the Great Lakes and our environment by reducing toxic mercury pollution from major sources,” said Howard A. Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. “Mercury is a neurotoxin that can pass through a pregnant woman’s placenta and harm fetal brain development. Coal plants and these industrial smokestacks are the largest sources of mercury pollution.  Today’s announcement leads the way to better protection for children’s health and the environment.”

Asian carp—particularly silver carp and bigheads— have invaded the Mississippi River and some of its tributaries, including the Illinois and Chicago Rivers, disrupting the ecosystem by starving out native fish. If they reach Lake Michigan, they could do the same to the Great Lakes, causing a decrease in biodiversity and severe economic impacts.

The groups have worked with IDEM for years in an attempt to improve Indiana’s water pollution rules, but the regulations still do not meet standards of the federal Clean Water Act. Large coal mines are currently allowed to pollute many of Indiana’s lakes and streams while pollution from industry and agriculture has contaminated over 800 Indiana Waterways with e coli bacteria.

The petition asks EPA to take back the authority for enforcing the Clean Water Act if IDEM does not improve its water pollution control program.

Read ELPC’s press release.

 Read coverage in the Indy Star.

Read the editorial “In Defense of Clean Water” by the Indy Star’s editorial board.

The EPA pledged to begin regulating nitrogen and phosphorous pollution—coming from farms, lawns, and municipal water treatment plants—in Wisconsin’s waters back in 1999.  Nitrogen and phosphorus contaminate drinking water by promoting the growth of cyanobacteria or blue-green algae and also contribute to algal blooms in the Great Lakes and ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico.

Wisconsin’s public health has been negatively affected, with the cyanobacteria causing death of pets, rashes, sore throats, and eye irritation, but that is not the only ill-effect the state has experienced.  “Businesses located on waters tainted with toxic algae are really hurting,” said Denny Caneff, Executive Director of the River Alliance of Wisconsin. “They lose customers who flee the stench and the health hazards posed by toxic algae.  EPA needs to act to limit the nutrients causing these algae blooms.”

According to ELPC Senior Attorney Albert Ettinger, EPA needs to take responsibility. “The current Administrator of EPA, Lisa Jackson, is obviously not the one to blame for the decade-long failure to establish standards for controls on phosphorus and nitrogen pollution, but under the Clean Water Act, she is now the one with the responsibility to fix the problem.”

Read coverage in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Daily Reporter and Greenwire (subscription required)

Read the Press Release

ELPC is concerned, in particular, that the proposed rules don’t address nitrogen and phosphorus – pollutants that have created a huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico and could have similar effects on Indiana waters.  As ELPC Senior Attorney Albert Ettinger told the Post Tribune, “I don’t think these rules are acceptable because they’re going to exempt very important pollutants that will have a demonstrable effect on waters in Indiana.”

 Read the full article in the Post Tribune

The state’s current anti-degradation rules could allow BP  or another company to increase the amount of ammonia and silty materials it dumps into the lake without examining cleaner alternatives. ELPC Senior Attorney Albert Ettinger and Staff Attorney Brad Klein told the Indiana press about their concerns that another pollution controversy could emerge if the state doesn’t improve its clean water rules.

Read the full story in the Post-Tribune.

Ettinger said that the bill, proposed by Indiana Senator Beverly Gard, would prevent the Indiana Department of Environmental Management from calculating the amount of pollution entering Indiana’s waters.  The bill could also undermine attempts to improve impaired waters so they could be used for swimming or fishing.

Read the full story here

Listen to the spots here:

Stop global warming

Solutions for farmers

Protecting the Great Lakes

If you are a broadcaster interested in airing one of our spots, please contact Pete Gray at ELPC.

In spite of their large size, the Great Lakes are sensitive to the effects of a wide range of pollutants. Major stresses on the lakes include toxic and nutrient pollution, invasive species and habitat degradation. Sources of pollution include the runoff of soils and farm chemicals from agricultural lands, waste from cities, discharges from industrial areas and leachate from disposal sites.

The large surface area of the lakes also makes them vulnerable to direct atmospheric pollutants that fall as rain, snow, or dust on the lake surface, or exchange as gases with the lake water. Outflows from the Great Lakes are relatively small in comparison with the total volume of water, so pollutants that enter the lakes are retained in the system and become more concentrated with time.

Injurious Species

ELPC continues to work with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC) and Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) on reducing the spread of Asian Carp and other injurious species that threaten the Great Lakes.