Clean Waters Act

As Chicagoans Brace for Higher Water Bills, Groups Push for Affordability Reforms

Water rates have more than doubled since 2010. Low-income residents feel the pinch most of all. On Sunday Chicagoans will face another spike in their water bills after seeing rates more than double over the past 15 years. The latest increase—4 percent—comes as environmental justice groups are fighting for more water-affordability protections. “Water is just […]

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How Big Ag thwarted wetlands protections in Illinois and Iowa

Two years ago this week, the Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. the Environmental Protection Agency significantly limited the agency’s ability to use the 1972 Clean Water Act to safeguard the nation’s wetlands from pollution and destruction. The decision determined that wetlands — waterlogged habitats that help filter water and sequester carbon — must be

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On Earth Day, EPA union workers decry cuts to clean air and water regulations

Fifty-five years after the first Earth Day, Environmental Protection Agency employees and advocates call for help as the Trump administration rolls back environmental regulations and lays off hundreds of workers. Earth Day was marked not with celebration but with a sense of urgency and despair for Environmental Protection Agency union members in Chicago as the

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Illinois environmentalists push for state action to protect wetlands after Supreme Court ruling rolls back federal rules

Across the country, marshes, swamps and bogs quietly soak up flood water and filter pollutants. Ecologists agree they are one of the best natural defenses against climate change. But after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, more than half of the country’s 118 million acres of wetlands, according to estimates from the environmental firm Earthjustice, will

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Jen Walling Opinion: What Illinois can do since Supreme Court gutted federal protection of wetlands, waterways

The Supreme Court last week restricted the EPA’s ability to protect America’s waterways and wetlands. Illinois can’t afford to sit back and do nothing to protect both in our state, the head of the Illinois Environmental Council writes. Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Legislature must act immediately to

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