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Kirk, Giannoulias Talk Sewage, Chicago River
U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk says he's against re-reversing the Chicago River, which was reversed 110 years ago to stop spewing sewage-contaminated river water into Lake Michigan, source of drinking water. Instead, the sewage was dumped into the Illinois River system and went Downstate, where it presumably dissipated.

Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, in response to a question, said he was in favor of re-reversing the river, because the Great Lakes are losing 500 million gallons a day of now-purified water.

Kirk says he's against returning river water to Lake Michigan, characterizing it as sewage dumping. "In the past, I offered bipartisan legislation with Congressman Lipinski, to ban sewage dumping, and in this Congress, we introduced the Great Lakes Water Protection Act, H.R. 54," Kirk said. "As a senator, I will work to make sure that this is the law of the land."

The dumping of raw sewage into the Great Lakes is already banned, and cities pay fines if their sewage treatment plants are inundated in a storm and release raw sewage into the Great Lakes. Kirk says any sewage that's returned to the Great Lakes at any time should have to be in "pristine" condition, a substantial upgrade from current law.

(Illinois Radio Network)
07 11 10 by Newsroom
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