Illinois court rules Trump Tower endangered Chicago River, killed fish for nearly 20 years

While there’s no evidence that migrants in Ohio are eating domesticated cats and dogs, Trump Tower may have been illegally killing fish in the Chicago River for nearly 20 years.

A Cook County judge issued a summary judgment against downtown Chicago’s Trump International Hotel & Tower for violating federal environment laws that protect aquatic life, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office said in a statement Wednesday.

“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,” according to Attorney General Kwame Raoul. “All entities — no matter who they are — must be held accountable when they willfully disregard our laws.”

Prosecutors said the violations date back to 2005, when construction began on the centrally located Trump Tower without the required permit to discharge heated water into the Chicago River.

State officials said the high-rise operates a water intake system capable of pulling 20 million gallons of water from the river per day, which is used to operate Trump Tower’s cooling systems. The water pumped back into the river can be 35 degrees hotter than what’s removed.

A settled complaint filed by the attorney general’s office in 2012 compelled Trump Tower operators to get the proper paperwork, pay a $46,000 fine and comply with environmental safeguards moving forward, according to the Chicago Tribune.

But in 2018, a lawsuit filed by the attorney general also accused Trump Tower of sucking water out of the river with such force that thousands of fish were killed. The Sierra Club and Friends of the Chicago River also filed suit against the property in 2018 because of alleged violations of the Clean Water Act.

“Effectively, what was found is, there’s no question that they have done all the things that they were accused of doing,” Friends of the Chicago River director Margaret Frisbie told the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday.

Prosecutors are asking for “civil penalties and injunctive relief” to be ordered by the court at a future hearing for damages.

Trump spent much of the week on the East Coast, where he claimed during Tuesday’s presidential debate that Haitian migrants are eating house pets. He offered no evidence to back up that claim.