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Sierra Club Welcomes Long-Delayed Cleanup Plans
For DuPage County Streams, But Proposals Need Work

As Illinois EPA presents draft cleanup plans for Salt Creek and the East Branch of the DuPage River at hearings in Lisle and Elmhurst this week, Sierra Club leaders are welcoming the effort but calling for major improvements to the plans.

"We’re glad Illinois EPA is finally proposing cleanup plans for Salt Creek and the East Branch of the DuPage River, because these streams have been suffering from pollution for too long. But the plans will have to be upgraded if they are to make these streams healthy again," said Jack Darin, Director of the Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter.

Sierra Club volunteers have been monitoring the quality of the water in Salt Creek and the East Branch of the DuPage River on a regular basis since 2000. Their results show that levels of phosphorus in both streams are consistently higher than the level considered healthy for Midwestern streams. Phosphorus pollution, which comes from fertilizer runoff, municipal wastewater, and other sources, causes excessive algae growth that depletes the oxygen that fish need to breath out of the water. It can also cause unpleasant odors and turn the water a pea-green color in summer.

Despite the overload of phosphorus, the draft cleanup plan proposed by Illinois EPA does not call for any new measures to reduce phosphorus pollution. Data collected by Sierra Club volunteers at sites along Salt Creek and the East Branch shows phosphorus levels up to 45 times higher than the amount considered healthy by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"Sierra Club’s testing shows that these streams are suffering from an overload of phosphorus," said Darin. "Any cleanup plan that ignores this major problem is doomed to fail."

Sierra Club welcomes proposals by Illinois EPA to adopt tougher limits on discharges of ammonia and biological oxygen demand, or BOD. Too much ammonia is toxic to fish and other aquatic life, and BOD sucks oxygen out of the water much like phosphorus-fertilized algae. In addition, the plans recommend better efforts to keep road salt out of the water in the winter. Illinois EPA has been working on the cleanup plans for several years.

"Making Salt Creek and the East Branch of the DuPage healthy again for fish and recreation will take work, but it’s worth it. Sierra Club stands ready to work with Illinois EPA, local governments, and any one else who wants to help clean up water pollution in DuPage County," said Darin.