Setback for Trump Tower Chicago? Illinois Court rules building breached environmental laws, killed thousand of fishes
A Federal Court Judge has called Trump Tower in Chicago a public nuisance and an environmental threat for killing thousands of fish.
A Federal Court Judge has called Trump Tower in Chicago a public nuisance and an environmental threat for killing thousands of fish.
In their lawsuit against the Trump International Hotel and Tower in downtown Chicago, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and environmental activists claimed the hotel's managers had broken environmental regulations. Last year, they requested a ruling from the Cook County Circuit Court.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a judge has declared that Trump Tower is a public nuisance and that thousands of fish have perished in the Chicago River primarily due to its cooling water intake system.
Located at 401 N. Wabash Ave., the skyscraper was inaugurated in 2009. A complaint claims that it does not appropriately record water discharge levels and has been functioning without a valid state water permit.
In a bid to cool the building, its intake system takes 20 million gallons of water out of the Chicago River every day. Organizations claimed thousands of fish were illegally sucked in and killed by the building in question.
Due to the volume of water, the building must abide local, state, and federal laws related to water intake and fish protection.
A look at judge's ruling and what is ahead
Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson of Cook County Circuit Court ruled that Trump Tower “has created and continues to create a public nuisance in violation of Illinois law,” reported the Sun-Times.
According to Wilson, the operation of the intake system “interferes substantially and unreasonably with the public right to fish and otherwise recreate in the Chicago River.”
According to Margaret Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River, “they were able to kill more fish and aquatic organisms than what would be allowed”.
“This decision brings us near the end of a six-year journey,” Frisbie added, as per the outlet.
Meanwhile, Sierra Club Illinois director Jack Darin asserted that they be monitoring to ensure that they obey the legislation.
The next hearing in the case is set for November. Should the parties fail to come to a consensus, the courts will decide how to compel the building to adhere to the rules.