Environmentalists say Chicago's wastewater is a major factor in creating the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, and a group of organizations is pushing for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to impose stricter standards on all states from here to the Gulf. more ›

A day after the historic announcement that Chicago's notorious coal plants would be closing, community groups gathered at Dvorak Park to celebrate their victory in the shadow of the Fisk Generating Station smokestack. more ›

A Trib expose shows that nowhere in Chicago makes clearer pollution's local and global impact than Pilsen and Little Village, where the smokestacks for two of the nation’s oldest coal plants loom. more ›

We hear about pollution all the time, but a new report names the biggest releasers of a rogue's gallery of toxic chemicals. We combed through the data to see where the mess is coming from... more ›

If the Chicago river smelled a little less offensive than usual this morning, it’s probably a coincidence. more ›

If the North Shore suburbs are so great, why did a national study note that their beaches are so bad? Find out where to swim over the holiday weekend. more ›

In October, ran a feature story examining the possibility of "Chicago Without Coal" in the coming years. But only six months later, dramatic events throughout the region seem to be moving up the time-line on the questions the story raised. The announcement this week that the State Line Power Station could close as soon as next year, paired with recent announcements in NW Indiana and Milwaukee, as well as growing support for the Clean Power Ordinance in the City Council seems to reinforce the idea that the little black rocks' days are numbered in our neck of the woods. more ›

24/7 Wall St. conducted an analysis of the environmental issues affecting the states in the Union. Let's just say Illinois doesn't fare so well. more ›

Lead. In the tiniest amounts, studies show it damages brain development in children. That's why we have taken it out of our gasoline and paint. And it is why the news from Pilsen particularly bad. Monitoring data shows dangerous levels of lead in the air around Perez elementary school at or above federal limits with spikes more than 10 times higher. The Trib’s crack environmental reporter Michael Hawthorne exposed the numbers that “alarm even veteran investigators” in a front-page story which could have significant political impact both locally and nationally. Officials are unsure of exactly where the lead is coming from, but a quick look around the neighborhood points to two likely cluprits. The school is just blocks from the H. Kramer and Co. smelter and the Fisk Generating Station (one of two ancient coal plants in Chicago owned by Midwest Generation, LLC); both have been cited by the US EPA for significant Clean Air Act violations in recent years. more ›

New documents have emerged that show the damage caused by a sewage pollution stream in the Chicago River that extends all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Did that information come from a brave whistleblower? Or a Wikileaks sleuthing of secret files? Nope. Turns out it comes from testimony by the authority itself and its allies aimed at proving that they had already trashed the River with pollution too thoroughly to make it worth saving. more ›

Chicago isn’t exactly known for its pristine, healthy air, given our smoggy history and one of the nation's highest asthma rates. But air pollution issues have soared to unusual prominence of late with highly visible battles around the coal plants in the City, concerns about pollution wafting over from just outside of town, and even some of the local commuter trains. Those issues don’t seem to have dented the consciousness of much of Illinois’ Congressional delegation in DC, where the local battles pale in comparison to open warfare on the Environmental Protection Agency and pollution laws. more ›

That massive maze of pipes and towers around the bend of Lake Michigan where BP’s Whiting, IN refinery is in the midst of a $3.8 billion “modernization” project has not exactly been a beacon of good news. Issues of increased Lake dumping and vented carcinogens have garnered regional concern. And this week BP announced that the project is behind schedule, with the completion date now pushed back from 2012 to 2013 due to “many variables.” No doubt fixing up the aging 6th largest refinery in America is a complicated problem, causing executives plenty of stress. Folks living outside the BP property are literally losing sleep over the project for far different reasons---and they are starting to get understandably grouchy. more ›

A settlement between a Northwest Indiana utility and the US Environmental Protection Agency will likely result in cleaner air here and throughout the region. It could also bring renewed attention to Chicago’s two aging plants as one mayoral candidate has publicly expressed his wish that they clean up or shut down. more ›

OK, we admit it. Our bellies, rather than our lungs, are the reason for the continued interest in the filth-spewing diesel engines on Metra’s trains. We don't take light commuter rail regularly, but our daily walk through the Ogilvie train shed on the way to yummy lunch at the French Market is hold-your-breath-foul from the diesel haze of idling trains. Earlier this year, the Trib confirmed what anyone who walks past Metra’s downtown tracks had probably already guessed---those choking fumes ain’t healthy! more ›

The Illinois EPA is starting to get serious about fly dumpers (and before you start thinking this is something freaky, we are talking about folks illegally disposing of waste and debris). Frankly, we are psyched to see it. Chicagoland doesn’t exactly have a proud history of cleaning up its messes and a million dollar clean up of what could be the biggest illegal dump in the State’s history shows that the problem persists today. But news that a clouted figure in Markham is facing prosecution after being busted, once again, dumping construction waste is a promising sign. more ›

A small section of the Kankakee River was transformed into its own Gowanus Canal yesterday when an explosion at a wastewater treatment plant send thousands of gallons of raw sewage and sludge into the river. more ›

The announcement that an Indiana coal plant will be closing is particularly good news for Chicagoans. As we have reported before, while the State Line Generating Station is technically in the Hoosier state, you have to drive through the South Side to get to it. That unusual location quirk has helped the Prohibition-era plant avoid some regulatory scrutiny in the past, but changing federal regulations and enforcement have caught up with the filthy facility. Coal giant Dominion announced that they would shutter State Line and a Massachusetts plant between 2014 and 2017 rather than live up to new federal requirements that would have forced them to install modern pollution controls to protect the lungs and skies over nearby neighborhoods.

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Tens of thousands of commuters wander through one of the city’s most notable buildings every day without any sense of the origin of its quirky design. Metra riders step over real estate history as they make their way down the massive ramp in 2 N. Riverside Plaza which is linked by a sky bridge over Canal from the Ogilve Transportation Center next door. more ›

According to the study the plants cause more than $127 million in 2010 dollars in health damages yearly, based on 2005 emissions. Particulate matter released into the air causes cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, heart attacks, premature death and more. A spokeswoman for Midwest Generation told WBEZ that there is no tie between the plants and public health, putting the blame on traffic instead. The ELPC supports the Chicago Clean Power ordinance, which would require Midwest Generation to reduce PM pollution within 4 years. Howard Learner, executive director for the ELPC said via press release “Soot and smog from Chicago coal plants is making us sick and costing us millions. Cleaning them up is the right thing to do for our health, our environment and our economy.” more ›

The State Line Power Station sits on a spit of land jutting into Lake Michigan that is officially the northernmost territory of Indiana. But considering that you cannot get to the coal plant from the Hoosier State unless you drive through Chicago, it is just a technicality. But it’s a big technicality, as it has kept Illinois regulators from addressing one of the worst emitters of soot in the entire country as it spews pollution over the South Side while Indiana seems disinterested in addressing the situation. That might be changing as a coalition of environmental groups have filed suit to push enforcement of a rash of air pollution violations levied against the aging coal plant. more ›

Just because the Mayor is on his way out, does not mean he is out of big ideas for the City. He let loose a doozy with the Trib yesterday. The Clout Street blog reports that Daley is interested in re-reversing the flow of the Chicago River back into Lake Michigan: more ›

As clean-up from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill continues, a new, albeit smaller, oil catastrophe is unfolding much closer to home. An oil pipeline that pumps about 8 million gallons of crude oil from Griffith, Indiana to Sarnia, Ontario cracked near Kalamazoo, Michigan on Monday. The pipeline, part of Enbridge Energy Partner's Lakehead System is estimated to have dumped over 800,000 gallons (~19,500 barrels) of oil into a creek leading to the Kalamazoo River, which empties into Lake Michigan at Saugatuk though officials told the AP they don't expect the spill to reach the lake. Enbridge has dispatched crews to contain the spill, deploying booms onto the river. Local officials have already declared a state of emergency and Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Pali Matyas said yesterday afternoon, "It’s all rolling downhill and there are a lot of complications.” Authorities on site say that the spill appears to be contained at Battle Creek. “Oil entered the Tallmadge Creek and found its way to the Kalamazoo River,” Enbridge Chief Executive Officer Patrick Daniel told Bloomberg News. “Teams have been working through the night and day working on the containment and clean up.” Some of the complications mentioned including workers not able to use trucks to help remove some of the oil due to high water levels. more ›

It has been a rough week at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. The Trib revealed that the US EPA has joined the City and State in pushing for a significant clean-up of the Chicago River as part of an ongoing battle over the District's practice of dumping effluent into the waterway. And despite the Mayor's prickly "swim in the Potomac" response to the feds, the heat was turned up further on Thursday with strong anti-pollution editorials in both the Trib and the Sun-Times. more ›

Mayor Daley was in rare form on Wednesday responding to questions about a Trib story that revealed an April letter from the Obama Administration and the U.S. EPA pushing for the Chicago River to fulfill the Clean Water Act’s “fishable and swimmable” goal. Bristling at the federal guidance and unfunded mandates, Daley seemed to be channeling his inner Tea Partier when he blurted that the feds should, “Go swim in the Potomac,” and noted that, "We're trying to make this river every day cleanable, more cleanable." more ›

As the oil disaster in the Gulf continues unabated and law suits start to stack up, BP has taken a beating in the media for the impact its corporate culture has had on safety throughout their operations. In Chicagoland, that is prompting many to cast a wary eye south along the shore of Lake Michigan to Whiting, IN where BP is in the midst of a massive and controversial refinery expansion. more ›

Despite our green image, Chicago doesn’t exactly have the best environmental record. Yeah, there are plenty of bike lanes and green roofs, but we also have one of only two undecontaminated rivers in the nation and no real recycling program. Still, this is a town that at least wants to look like it is moving in the right direction. Just this week the City Council started discussing an ordinance that would finally shutter the city’s two ancient and dangerous coal plants, which have never lived up to the Clean Air Act. And just to the north, Evanston has begun to evaluate the Great Lakes’ first offshore wind farm. more ›

A new city ordinance, announced today, would limit the amount of pollution that Chicago's two coal-fired power plants can produce. The Clean Power Ordinance was sponsored by Alderman Joe Moore of the 49th Ward, co-sponsored by Aldermen Sandi Jackson (7th), Toni Preckwinkle (4th), and Gene Schulter (47th), and supported by more than 30 businesses and nonprofit groups. more ›

Apparently the National Weather Service has issued an air quality alert meaning long times outside could be kinda/sorta hazardous to your health. There's no official reason given but pollution is the suspected culprit. CBS 2 has more on how breathing outside may be hazardous to your health. more ›

Mercury pollution is on the rise in Illinois even though it has declined across the nation. According to the Chicago Tribune, coal plants in Illinois blew 7 percent more mercury into the air last year while emissions from U.S. power plants nationwide decreased by 4 percent. Mercury is among the many toxic byproducts that emanate from coal-fired power plants. In the Chicagoland area, emissions rose at three plants but fell at two others. more ›

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. more ›