On The Day Illinois Leaders Save The Lake ...

The Indiana Dunes
and Lake Michigan

On the same day I received an email from Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel reporting that BP backed down from plans to dump additional ammonia and other solids into Lake Michigan --

We must continue to fight to not just protect the Lakes, but also to improve their environmental health. While we keep working with our colleagues in Washington to restore the Great Lakes we need you to continue to join us in our fight.

Today we saw that real change is possible, and the agent of change was you. Thank you for your dedication to making sure that our Lakes are protected for future generations.

-- comes a report from Frugal Hoosiers that the city of Chicago dumped a bunch of raw sewage into the lake.

If you were one of those people who thought it was more than a little hypocritical for all those Chicago politicians (Rahm, Kirk, Durbin, Daley, et al) to be criticizing the BP permit while Illinois companies had been and continue to dump far more waste into Lake Michigan, you are not alone. So from now on, we’ll be sure to keep you up to date with stories like this.

“Thursday's deluge forced the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District to open locks on the North Shore Channel in Wilmette, allowing millions of gallons of raw and partially treated sewage to flow into Lake Michigan.

We need to make sure that our dedication to keeping Lake Michigan doesn't end when the issues aren't as sexy as those surrounding the BP America debate and that our resolve to protect Lake Michigan remains true even when it involves mundane issues such as cities dumping raw sewage into our water supply.

Lake+Michigan Chicago Pollution Sen.+Dick+Durbin Rep.+Rahm+Emanuel