Your child could go to gym class on Monday morning and play soccer on a field that was sprayed over the weekend with 2,4-D, a toxic weedkiller that has been investigated as possibly causing cancer. Alternatively, the school grounds may have been treated with a lower-toxicity weedkiller. Or maybe the grounds were managed with safe, nontoxic products and techniques.
A new report written by Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice, Prairie Rivers Network and Sierra Club, revealed widespread pollution of the groundwater surrounding 90 percent of reporting Illinois coal ash dumpsites. The report is based on industry data made publicly available for the first time this year because of a requirement in federal coal ash regulations. […]
It would appear that the Trump Organization’s business practices aren’t any more environmentally friendly than the policies of the current president, who ran it from 1971 to 2017. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced Tuesday that she had filed suit against the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago for taking and re-releasing millions of […]
A failed gas station empire owned by the family of Vice President Mike Pence has left communities in his home state saddled with millions of dollars in ongoing cleanup costs, the AP reported this weekend. An AP analysis of records relating to the 85 contaminated sites formerly owned by Kiel Bros. Oil Co., which collapsed […]
Illinois environmental groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that a utility company is violating the Clean Water Act by letting coal ash leak into a protected river. The groups allege that Texas-based Dynegy Inc. is tempting a dangerous spill by not dealing with unlined pits of coal ash at the shuttered Vermilion Power Station, which […]
By Kari Lydersen Four years ago, the Illinois legislature passed a law to regulate high volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, after months of contentious negotiations between oil industry interests, environmental watchdogs and community groups. Leading up to the law’s passage, companies had secured hundreds of leases to potentially frack in Southern Illinois. But then oil […]
Illinois state legislators announced Friday a series of legislative proposals that would block any weakened environmental and worker protection standards from taking effect in Illinois, and also respond to President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris agreement. House Bill 1438 and Senate Bill 2212, introduced by chief sponsors Rep. Juliana Stratton and Sen. […]
By Susan Cosier On the final day of the Illinois State Assembly’s 2016 session, a bill was passed that environmentalists can celebrate—one that significantly increases incentives for renewable energy and energy-efficiency requirements. Though the Democratic-led congress debated the Future Energy Jobs bill for months, legislators and Gov. Bruce Rauner worked together on a bipartisan compromise. […]
Other states have discussed it, but Illinois is the first to put action behind words. This week, the state became the nation’s first to enact a ban on microbeads, the small plastic particles found in beauty and cosmetic products. Gov. Pat Quinn’s legislative signing bans the manufacturing or sale of products that contain the beads. Companies add microbeads […]