A Cook County judge has ruled that Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago has been conducting operations that violate state and federal environmental law, operates without a legitimate state environmental permit and has killed thousands of fish over the years.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson on Monday found that Trump International Hotel & Tower "committed a continuing public nuisance through a series of failures to comply with state and federal law dating back to 2008."
This ruling has taken years of litigation to achieve, with Friends of the Chicago River, the Sierra Club and the Illinois Attorney General having filed the lawsuit in 2018.
"The Chicago River is one of our city's most treasured natural resources, providing opportunities for recreation and commerce," said Attorney General Kwame Raoul. "For years, Trump Tower failed to follow state and federal regulations that protect the health of the Chicago River and the balance of critical aquatic ecosystems therein. All entities — no matter who they are — must be held accountable when they willfully disregard our laws. I am pleased with this decision, and I am committed to continuing to vigorously enforce our environmental laws."
Since 2008, the building has withdrawn excessive water from the Chicago River for cooling purposes, exceeding the levels they reported they were withdrawing by over 44%. As one of the largest users of water from the river for the specific purpose of cooling, the tower is able to make use of 21 million gallons of cooling water daily.
As the tower has been violating permit requirements by doing this for decades, thousands of fish and other aquatic organisms have been killed either by getting trapped against the intake structure screens or being sucked into the building's cooling systems.
Margaret Frisbie, Friends of Chicago River's executive director, attributed the issue to the tower's improper cooling technology.
"If you don't have the proper technology at the interface with the river, where you're drawing the water in, you can actually trap and pull into this system fish and other aquatic life that end up in the system, or they actually get stuck on the screens and so you kill the wildlife that gets drawn in," said Frisbie.
"Judge Wilson's decision brings us close to the end of a six-year journey to bring justice to the wildlife for whom these laws were designed to protect and the people who enjoy this wildlife," Frisbie continued. "The Trump Tower's complete disregard for the rules carelessly killed countless creatures and degraded the value of the significant public investments over decades to bring about the healthy transformation of the river for people, fish, and other aquatic wildlife."
