Trump Tower dominated a public nuisance after hundreds of fish die
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A federal judge has ruled that Trump Tower in Chicago, Illinois is a public nuisance and an environmental hazard.
Last year, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and environmental activists asked the Cook County Circuit Court to rule on their case against the Trump International Hotel and Tower in downtown Chicago, arguing its operators had failed to comply with environmental laws.
Now, a judge has ruled that Trump Tower is a public nuisance and that its cooling water intake system has killed thousands of fish from the Chicago River, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Trump Tower “has created and continues to create a public nuisance in violation of Illinois law,” Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson said in his ruling, according to the Sun-Times.
The intake system also operates “in a manner that substantially and unreasonably interferes with the public right to fish and otherwise recreate in the Chicago River,” Wilson continued.
“This decision brings us near the end of a six-year journey,” Margaret Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River, told the Sun-Times.
“We’ll be monitoring to make sure they obey the law,” Jack Darin, director of Sierra Club Illinois, also told the outlet.
The next hearing is scheduled for November. Raoul plans to seek a civil penalty against the operators of Trump Tower.
“Trump Tower failed to follow state and federal regulations that protect the health of the Chicago River,” Raoul said in a statement. “All entities – no matter who they are – must be held accountable when they willfully disregard our laws.”
The tower was first opened in 2009 and is the seventh-tallest building in the United States.
The Independent has contacted the Trump Organization for comment.
Source: independent.co.uk
