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In a motion [PDF] filed with the Illinois Pollution Control Board, which essentially functions as a state environmental court, district attorneys argued that new water pollution standards proposed by the Illinois EPA would cost Cook County taxpayers billions of dollars “without any demonstration that it will bring about any appreciable improvement in water quality or benefit to public health.” They asked the pollution board to end public testimony on the proposed standards until more research is done, including an $8 million study the district has commissioned with the UIC public health department.
“People are yearning to use this river, and I hope there’s some ability to use the technology, whatever that is, to make the river a safer place, because I know the investment will pay off in multitudes over the years,” said Charles Portis, who leads an architectural paddling tour on the Chicago River.
“In decades gone by the joke was that communities downstream from Chicago weren’t going to take any more crap from the city,” said Tom Bamonti, a kayaker. “Well, we’ve cured that problem but we’re still sending loads of bacteria down the river. We owe it to our neighbors and we owe it to ourselves to disinfect the Chicago River.”
