Study says Chicago water kills marine life
Posted on: Friday, 3 April 2009, 13:45 CDT
Polluted water from Chicago has helped create a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, where excess algae suffocates marine life, says a U.S. Geological Survey study.
Chicago was named the top offender in the study of the causes of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the 8,000 square-foot dead zone, Chi-TownDailyNews.org reported Friday.
The study released Thursday examined sources for 150 watersheds in the Mississippi River Basin.
Chicago's Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, or MWRD, ranked first in discharging water tainted with phosphorous and nitrogen, which accumulate through the use of fertilizer and detergent, the study says.
Chicago's rank, however, can be misleading, said Albert Ettinger, a lawyer with the Environmental Law & Policy Center.
You can be number one and still only be 5 percent of the issue,
Ettinger said, explaining that much nitrogen and phosphorous found in the Mississippi River comes from farmland across the Midwest.
Still, Chicago could do more to clean up its water before discharging it, Ettinger said. The MWRD said it is formulating a response to the study.
Source: United Press International
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