3 Environmental Groups to Sue Water District

Article Summary:

There is a region in the Gulf of Mexico the size of New Jersey that can support little to no wildlife. This is due to the fact that algae suck all of the oxygen out of the water. It has recently been discovered that Chicago is one of the main sources of releasing phosphorus and nitrogen into the water, which feeds the bacteria. What happens is that power plants in Chicago do not properly clean their water, and release water with high amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus and nitrogen into the Illinois and Des Plains Rivers, which eventually flows downstream and ends up in the Gulf of Mexico. Phosphorus levels have actually been recorded at more than 10 times the limit set forth by the EPA in the Clean Water Act. Another crime the Chicago area is being accused of is contributing sewage and other pollution to the Chicago RIver and Lake Michigan. When it rains the sewage plants overflow and release high levels of sewage into the Chicago River. Untreated sewage is also being carelessly dumped simply because of laziness. This is causing similar problems for Lake Michigan as the Gulf of Mexico. The lake is experiencing low oxygen levels, and sludge and other pollution are beginning to litter its shores. Chicago is under high scrutiny because of these numerous problems and is being sued by many different environmental agencies. The groups say that suing pressures the government into enforcing the Clean Water Act. These groups also found that Chicago contributes more phosphorus and other pollute=ants to water than any other city in the United States. CHicago claims that they have removed 80% of the phosphorus from their water, but cannot remove any more due to financial limits. This picture shows the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The Green and Red region is the dead zone. Imagine how big that area, that can support almost no wildlife, actually is.

Reflection:

I think this is pathetic and embarrassing on Chicago's part. First of all, the sewage problem is disgusting. I am really glad I don't live in Chicago because I would be leery about drinking the tap water. This reminded me of the discussion we had in class the other day about overflowing sewage tanks. We came up with so many different solutions for this problem when we were doing the Enviroscape example as a class and I don't see any reason why a class of ninth graders can think of ways to fix this problem, but officials running a major city cannot. I feel like the real reason action isn't taken against this problem is simply because of laziness, carelessness, or because they do not want to spend money on it. Most people do not care about polluting water but I'm sure Chicago will regret their actions when they have no clean water left to drink and no fish to eat. Lake Michigan is obviously widely used for recreational purposes so once the sludge gets too thick on the shores for people to use the lake anymore maybe they will finally decide to take action. Also, I did not know that too much algea was so harmful to water, or that algea eats phosphorus. I know that many animals eat algea, but I guess too much of it is harmful. When I was younger my parents used to tell me "too much of anything, even something healthy, is bad" because i would always try to eat a whole bottle of vitamins and could not understand why it was bad, since they're supposed to be good for you. The excess of algea in the Gulf reminds me of this. Overall this is a huge problem and swift action needs to be taken to reverse it.

Questions:

1. Why are low oxygen levels in water so harmful to marine wildlife?
2. How does the government get away with not enforcing the Clean Water Act?
3. Why do you think this problem is ignored by the government?
4. If so many other cities can clean their liquid waste, why don't you think Chicago does?
5. Can you find more examples of "dead zones" in other parts of the world?