Results tagged “pollution”

This picture of a seagull reminded us that Chicago's beaches officially open for swimming in less than two weeks on May 23. But being the overall grumps that we are, it doesn't make us think of lazy days basking in the sun and splashing in Lake Michigan, but rather of the various beach closings each summer due to elevated levels of E.coli bacteria caused mainly by our fine feathered friend above. The city is trying to cull the seagull population by coating gull eggs with corn oil, which prevents them from hatching. Let's just hope they are more successful with that endeavor than they were with the Canada geese.

First bottled water was cool and tap water was out. Then bottled water was bad (eek! pollution!) and tap water was the name of the game. And now... we say stick with beer, as some scary news has emerged about the people guarding Chicago's H2O.

Sure, Al Gore got a Nobel Prize today, but the environment? Well, it's still pretty fucked. Nearly half of Illinois's waterways are unsafe for swimming or fishing.

Yesterday was full of firsts: we cooked breakfast and lunch at the same time (brown bagging), went to Whole Foods and didn’t have even one tiny free sample, and managed to pass the entire day eating only local food minus “exceptions” (see below). And we're craving chocolate, which isn’t any big news, except that this is only day one of Green City Market’s Localvore Challenge, and we have six more to go. If you’re haven’t...

One person is dead and three others are injured after a collision between a car and a Chicago Transit Authority bus. The car hit the bus at a high rate of speed after midnight. Our second favorite ex-President, Bill Clinton went on the Oprah show (aired on Tuesday) and downplayed his role in the presidential campaign of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. We'd be happy to have him as a first hubby. Walgreen...

What is wrong with people? Chicago police say a fisherman at Montrose Harbor may have been murdered, simply because he was Asian. The South Side is getting their prayer on after last year's tragic incidents of children being caught in the crossfire. Jesse Jackson is going around asking parents to send their kids to school. And he's finding it ironic that he has to beg when African-Americans fought to go to school in the...

BP announced yesterday that it was backing down on plans to increase discharges of ammonia and suspended solids into Lake Michigan from the planned expansion of its Whiting, Indiana refinery. BP announced on its website Thursday "ongoing regional opposition to any increase in discharge permit limits for Lake Michigan creates an unacceptable level of business risk for this $3.8 billion investment."

So the folks over at BP have been listening to your - and our - reservations over their plans to increase the level of pollution they can dump into Lake Michigan from the planned expansion of their Whiting, Indiana refinery. They even met with opponents of the expansion yesterday. So why are we not surprised that BP said that they're doing it anyway? BP America vice chairman Stephen A. Elbert said that the planned expansion...

Here are some things in the news while we do spit takes at the ticket prices for the upcoming Van Halen tour. A $300-a-year parking permit created for realtors, home health care providers, and social workers to plug a $2.4 million hole in the city's 2007 budget only generated $15,900 in revenue. Facing increasing criticism in allowing BP to increase the amount of pollution it can discharge into Lake Michigan, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels...

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a...

Last week we clued you in to BP's plans to increase the levels of ammonia and sludge thhey are discharging into Lake Michigan from their Whiting, IN refinery. Responding to the wave of local bad press the company got, BP ran full page ads in newspapers, letters to the editor, and even blog advertising, including here on Chicagoist. Yesterday the Chicago Tribune ran with a front page headline detailing the flogging that BP took on...

Like someone who's ready to quit smoking but still can't clean up their own mess, Chicago will go smoke-free on January 1 but ... we'll still have a little problem. A garbage problem. Daley's trying like gangbusters to make the city go green. And we're behind green roofs, eco-friendly sidewalks and solar-powered bus shelters 100%. But. (Non)news flash: the recycling program is a joke. The Blue Bag recycling program doesn't address the fact that...

You may not realize it, but the Great Lakes Watershed is not only the source of all of our fresh drinking water, but it's also a political entity, protected by a group of US States and Canadian Provinces. Under the Water Resources Development Act, diversion of water from the Great Lakes basin requires the approval of all eight Great Lakes governors, something that rarely occurs. This act, and it's ramifications, has been a point of...

Last Thursday, the Regional Transportation Authori-tay (RTA) told Metra, Pace and CTA to start preparing emergency budgets to take effect July 1 due to a $226 million deficit in the big picture of the RTA. Springfield needs to help out or the Chicagoland area is getting some more salt in the public transportation wounds that have been inflicted with deteriorating infrastructures, higher fares and delays caused by massive renovations. The Daily Southtown article quoted RTA...

We know this is blasphemous and all, but we've gotten a little tired of hearing about global warming lately. Each passing day bombards us with another article about switching incandescent lightbulbs for the ones laced with mercury that can be disposed of as easily as, say, batteries, another "green issue" of Jane or Bop or whatever and another quote about the dire situation from a presidential candidate, we're terribly sorry, probably don't even recycle. That's...

When we were kids, we used to swim in a lake near our house. However, as the years went by, algae began to over take the water, and soon, the once fun summer spot became nothing more than a marshy swamp-like area of water riddled with insects.

Lake Michigan Structures?

Chicagoist is a big fan of Richard Branson. He's the type of tycoon we would want to be if some obscure rich uncle became wormfood and left us a couple of billion dollars. He's been a busy guy, with his fingers in a lot of businesses, including entertainment, retail, and transportation. We're particularly a fan of his Virgin Galactic idea and we can't wait to buy tickets on a suborbital flight. We don't care where we'd go - we'd be there for just for the trip

Poor Great Lakes. Even with all the great gains to combat pollution and keep creepy fish and aliens out of the ecosystem, there's always another part of the human race that's chomping at the bit to drain them of their vitality. This time it's New Berlin, a town 15 miles west of Milwaukee that has requested the right to drain the lake of 1.83 million gallons of water a day, because it's not close enough to the watershed.

Chicagoist's dad is sort of weird. Well, lots of weird. He refuses to use his turn signal in nearly every occasion unless someone is right up on him because he doesn't see the need to "waste blinks" and burn out the fuse. Whaa? Better yet, he likes to shift his automatic and put his car in neutral at stop lights. We have NO clue what this is accomplishing, but he claims that this "saves gas." OOO-kay.

The Coast Guard is planning to create 34 live-fire training zones in the Great Lakes that could discharge over 400,000 lead and copper bullets into the waters. This would amount to more lead dumped in the water than the entire state of Michigan dumps in a year, even after the gunfire from Detroit celebrating the Tigers reaching the World Series.

Can the Windy City Get THAT Windy?

"Cat/dog" via margaretlyons

"Roving Angel III" by Chaseism

Chicagoist couldn’t be happier with the delightful weather we’ve had recently. If you’re stuck in a cube somewhere, you should really try to get outside as soon as possible – it’s freakin’ gorgeous.

A "mishap" in Milwaukee yesterday flushed 800,000 gallons of partially treated sewage into Lake Michigan. Workers at the Jones Island Waste Treatment Plant were testing gates for an underground channel when they accidentally opened. Thirty minutes and 800,000 gallons of effluent later, the gates were closed.

River Reversal?

Itchy eyes? Trouble breathing? The AP has done a study merging 2000 Census Data with emission reports from industrial plants to determine who is most at risk from this kind of pollution nationwide. The data points to minorities (disproportionately Blacks and Hispanics) and the poor being most endangered by short term and long term exposure.

Take a deep breath today folks, it'll be one of your last whiffs of Blommer's chocolate. The EPA was serious about ridding downtown Chicago of the scourge of chocolate pollution. The Blommer Chocolate factory is heeding a complaint by the agency about the pollution caused by grinding cocoa beans and will soon be installing equipment to stifle the emissions.

Anyone who has spent time downtown knows about the delicious cocoa smell wafting over from the Blommer chocolate factory just west of the river. Chicagoist used to hike 2.5 miles each way to our job downtown, and the smell followed us door-to-door. You might think we'd have gotten sick of it, but that warm chocolate hug just made us want to stay home and gorge ourselves on cake and brownies all day. Combine that with the smell of the Bay's English muffin factory near our home and we felt like the fat kid from Willy Wonka.