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Trump Tower in Chicago has agreed to pay $4.8 million for killing thousands of fish after years of pulling water from the river to cool its building.
A federal judge previously ruled the Trump International Hotel and Tower in downtown Chicago was a public nuisance and an environmental hazard. It was pulling in 20 million gallons of water a day from the Chicago River, the plaintiffs said.
Now the First Family’s Chicago holding must cough up after violating federal and state law in the years-long lawsuit brought by Friends of the Chicago River, the Sierra Club and the Illinois Attorney General.
“Trump Tower is one of the largest users of water from the Chicago River for cooling, and failing to follow federal requirements resulted in the death of thousands of fish and other aquatic organisms which were sucked into the building cooling system by the intake structure or trapped against its screens,” the organizations said.
The multi-million-dollar settlement includes paying $3 million toward a Supplemental Environmental Project to fund a fish habitat restoration program in the Chicago River.
The settlement appears to be the largest Clean Water Act-related resolution in Illinois state court history, according to the organizations.
“Friends of the Chicago River is extremely pleased that much of the money to be realized with this settlement can be used to create and restore habitat in downtown Chicago for fish and other aquatic wildlife,” said Margaret Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River. “Friends will work closely with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the City of Chicago to assure the benefits of the settlement are brought home and the healing process can begin.”
Jack Darin of the Sierra Club Illinois chapter said the suit was an important step in “holding polluters accountable.”
“This vigilant defense of our water, air, and land is more important now than ever, as our federal government’s ability to crack down on polluters is disappearing before our very eyes,” he said.
Trump Tower must also pay $1.5 million in penalty fees to Illinois and $300,000 in attorneys’ fees.
The suit also said that Trump Tower failed to accurately compute and report the rate at which the skyscraper’s cooling system withdraws water by approximately 44 percent for more than 10 years.
The tower sits at 401 N. Wabash Avenue and opened in 2009. It was operating without a proper state water permit and did not accurately report water discharge levels, the lawsuit said.
Cook County circuit court Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson previously ruled that the Trump Tower could not even genuinely dispute that it violated the applicable laws.
