The Illinois Attorney General has reached a settlement of $ 4.8 million with Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, which is responsible for not obtaining appropriate permits for its water cooling entry system that jeopardizes the safety of the life of fish and aquatic on the Chicago river that is poured and requires solutions of the system to reduce environmental impacts.
The liquidation is derived from a summary sentence of September 2024 issued by a judge of the Cook County County Circuit, who found that the owner of the building, 401 North Wabash Venture LLC, violated the Environmental Protection Law of Illinois taking millions of gallons of river water per day to cool the 96 -studied plant to reduce the impact on the life of fish and aquatic.
It was estimated in a lawsuit filed in 2018 by the State Attorney General, which the tower, completed in 2009, resorts and unloads about 20 million gallons of water on the river.
By virtue of the proposed agreement, which resolves the violations of the Illinois Environmental Protection Law and the Regulations of the Illinois, Trump International Hotel and Tower pollution control board will have to install flow counters to control the heated water volume that is downloaded to the river. A third party will audit the precision of the monthly counters and control data will be shared with all the parties that participate in the case. In addition, 401 North Wabash Venture must make changes to its cooling system to prevent aquatic life from being trapped.
The Friends of the Chicago River, a non -profit that joined the lawsuit against the owner of the tower, claims to its website that the company “could not calculate and accurately inform the speed at which the skyscraper cooling system withdraws the water for about 44% for more than 10 years”.
The “complete ignoring of the tower by the rules was neglected in countless creatures and degraded the value of significant public investments for decades to lead to the healthy transformation of the river for people, fish and other wildlife,” said Margaret Frisbie, a non -profit executive director, in a statement.
The liquidation, which must be approved by a regional judge after a period of public comments of 30 days, will cover $ 1.5 million in civil penalties, $ 3 million for an additional environmental project to restore river habitat, fish and aquatic life and $ 300,000 in litigation costs.
