Paddling Upstream: Plan to clean Chicago rivers meets resistance

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE 

At the height of the city's industrial boom it was possible to cross the Chicago River by skipping across the barges cramming downtown waterways.

 Later, wags say, you could use the polluted water itself.

 Since then, industrial barge traffic has been greatly reduced, and massive projects like the Deep Tunnel keep most raw sewage from ever reaching the 78-mile-long Chicago Area Waterway System.  Rivers once designated as receptacles for human and industrial wastes now accommodate canoe paddlers, rowing crews and recreational anglers.
        
 At a Monday hearing before the Illinois Pollution Control Board, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency presented a proposal to further tighten Chicago's water quality standards.

 The plan would require water treatment facilities to disinfect wastewater for bacteria before it is released, and would require industries like coal-powered electricity plants to cool their hot-water discharges. But stiff challenges from companies like Midwest Energy suggest the plan faces a battle for board approval.

 "I look forward to much more information being provided," Midwest attorney Susan Franzetti said after questioning the IEPA.
 
 Several other groups are scheduled to appear before the board during the weeklong hearings, but only the Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group, an organization of companies that must meet pollution standards, was able to finish its questioning on Monday.  Members of the public can attend, but will be able to testify only at a separate set of hearings in March.
   
 Franzetti criticized the agency for not considering the plan's economic effect on area industries.  Midwest would need to build cooling towers or install "closed-cycle" cooling systems at five area plants to comply with the proposals, which the company estimated would cost between $559 million and $790 million, according to the IEPA report.

 Roy Smoger, a stream biologist with the IEPA, said cooling towers are "available and widely used" at power companies throughout the state, though he wasn't aware of any plants that had retrofitted their facilities with the technology.

 Much of Monday's discussion centered on whether use of the Chicago water system and lower Des Plaines River belongs to recreational users or industry, and whether the proposed standards would be enough.  Franzetti argued the temperature changes would still leave the affected waterways short of aquatic standards spelled out in the 1972 federal Clean Water Act. But the agency said native fish tend to avoid artificially warmed areas of the waterways, which are more conducive to invasive species like the Asian carp.

 "The truth is the Clean Water Act says you must keep trying, so we're not stuck in the 1970s," said Margaret Frisbie, executive director of the Friends of the Chicago River.  Frisbie joined other Chicago environmental groups at the hearing in support of the IEPA plan.  

 "I think it's very important that the river environment be as safe as possible," said Chris Parson, a paddler and retiree who volunteers with Friends of the Chicago River.  "That's why I'm in favor of disinfection."

 The hearings will continue through the end of the week, with scheduled questioning from Flint Hills Resources, CITGO Petroleum Corporation, Corn Products International Inc., Chemical Industry Council of Illinois, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, Stepan Company, Environmental Law and Policy Center, and ExxonMobil Oil Corporation.