We're lucky that Lake Michigan water isn’t all “Erie” like that in Toledo

I experienced a sense of relief Monday morning when I learned that local officials once again proclaimed their water supply safe for drinking.


Let’s face it. The home of the Mudhens baseball team (who this season may well be better than either of our allegedly “Major League” franchises) experienced a problem this weekend that could just as easily occur in Chicago.

BOTH CITIES RELY on the Great Lakes for their fresh water drinking supply. We may make jokes about Lake Erie. But it really isn’t all that different from Lake Michigan from which we take.

The algae bloom that developed near a structure used by Toledo to draw water from Lake Erie to plants where it is treated before being put into the system where it eventually comes out of the faucets in peoples’ residences is something that could happen here.

It could easily be us someday experiencing a stretch of time when we’re alerted to NOT drink the water or cook with it, or even try to bathe in it if it turns out we’re particularly sensitive physically.

If Mayor Rahm Emanuel has any sense, he’ll do whatever it takes to reduce the odds that any such incident were ever to occur on the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan.

WE CLAIM MICHAEL Bilandic got dumped as mayor because his city let a heavy winter storm get out of control. Just envision how we’d demonize a mayor who let the lake get tainted – even for a few days.

That might well be the only circumstances under which Robert Shaw could actually win the mayoral election cycle coming up next year.

The fact is that the algae bloom that caused the problem in Toledo is a part of nature – or at least nature interacting with the human species.

A notice issued by Toledo city officials during the weekend said such bloom is caused by runoff from over-fertilized farm fields, livestock pens or malfunctioning septic systems.

WE COULD EASILY have similar circumstances occur in Chicago if we’re not careful.

In fact, there are times I think it is miraculous that the water from the Chicago River – which at one time was toxic but is now merely polluted – doesn’t routinely cause problems for the Lake Michigan water supply that the city relies on both in terms of a drinking supply and a source of revenue for the hundreds of suburbs it sells water access to.

It often is called one of the engineering marvels of modern-day society that the flow of the Chicago River was reversed so that the pollution flows downstate across Illinois and ultimately to the Mississippi River.

It is a good part of the reason why I am skeptical of those people who fear the concept of Asian Carp getting into Lake Michigan, who try to blame the river’s reversal as some sort of unnatural act that caused the potential problem, and want it reversed back to the way Mother Nature had it before there was a “Chicago” on the shores of Lake Michigan.

THEY’D HAVE A heck of a lot of contaminates wind up in our city’s drinking water supply. To such a degree that we’d be an even bigger news story than what occurred in Toledo this weekend – and which seems to have come to an end Monday morning.

The people of Toledo will soon be back to turning on their faucet if they want a drink of water. While we ought to hope we never experience such a state of affairs.

Because the levels needed to contaminate water aren’t that large – CNN reported Monday morning that one drop would be sufficient to taint a swimming pool. The part of Lake Michigan that Chicago draws water from may be much larger, but could still be tainted.

Just think how unpleasant a place Chicago would become if we had to go for a stretch of time without showering? Particularly in the midst of summer? Peee-yoooo!

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Feds raid Crestwood village hall

I know it’s not really humorous, but I got my chuckle for the day from reading the Chicago Tribune account of how federal authorities raided the Village Hall building in south suburban Crestwood.

Led by agents of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, federal investigators spent the bulk of the day Wednesday at the village hall going through village government records.

IN SHORT, THEY'RE looking for anything irregular that might indicate illegal activity took place with regards to the suburb’s water supply, and the way municipal officials conducted themselves.

Village officials continue to say they have a safe water supply, and were never aware of any potential flaws with their water. That comes despite indications that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency first found problems more than two decades ago, and that no one bothered to inform the public until the past couple of weeks.

We shouldn’t make too much of Wednesday’s raid. It is very common for federal investigators when they suspect there’s a chance of something irregular to go all out with a public show of force. It makes the public think that the federal government is doing something to justify their share of the tax dollars that everybody pays out.

Hence, we get the sight of the Chicago Tribune photograph depicting an agent of the U.S. EPA looking bored stiff while talking to superiors on his cellphone, while in the background, staffers of the Crestwood village clerk’s office go about their daily routine of selling village auto stickers and accepting payments for bills.

YOU CAN ALMOST envision those employees telling the village residents (including the woman who appears to be writing out a check) to, “ignore the guys with the EPA logo on their jackets,” even though those guys are rifling through file cabinets and other records looking for information that could provide a clue as to who truly knew what about the quality of Crestwood drinking water.

Perhaps they were even going about trying to delude themselves into thinking that Wednesday was just another day – instead of being the day that a suburb that even by the standards of secretive government has little to say about itself had its underbelly exposed to the world by the federal government.

For the record, Crestwood officials said they were cooperating with the federal government. No one was threatening to brandish a weapon or use any other force to stop EPA investigators from looking for whatever it is they think constitutes evidence of “environmental crimes.”

I believe them.

THIS IS ONE of those situations where the worst thing a Crestwood official could do would be to try to interfere. Let the EPA probe village records related to water and public works, and there’s a good chance that the end result some year from now of all this activity will be a hefty fine against village government – which means that taxpayers themselves who once got the benefit of cheap water bills will someday have to pay more to cover the cost of the fines.

But if a municipal employee dares to try to interfere, then they make themselves a potential target for criminal investigation. It could literally result in bringing upon oneself a prison term (albeit just for a year or so).

Does any lowly municipal employee want to make themselves the human face of this investigation? Right now, it focuses on the generic concept of a municipality, although I wonder if it should become the legacy of the Stranczek family that has controlled the village president’s post since 1969.

Current President Robert Stranczek is trying to behave as though his usual practice (learned from father, Chester, who ran the town until 2007) of doing what he wants and ignoring what he finds displeasing can still work.

TAKE HIS BRIEF statement made Wednesday from the steps of the Village Hall on Cicero Avenue. “Right now, our drinking water is 100 percent safe and the village doesn’t believe there was anything wrong with it prior to this,” he said, before ignoring questions and going back to hide in his office. He thinks this is the final word.

Unfortunately, this is an issue that will stretch on for years. It is going to be one that we will get sick and tired of hearing. Many of us Chicago-area residents are going to be tired of having to think about Crestwood.

And like I mentioned earlier, the end result of all this is going to be a significant fine against the village – which will result in tax hikes that the local powers-that-be will try to blame on the federal government.

Which means in the end, it will be the public that gets dumped on again.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: You have to love the photograph of the EPA agent-in-charge that accompanies (http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/04/us-raids-crestwood-offices-in-water-probe.html) this story about Wednesday’s federal raid of Crestwood village hall.

Crestwood’s tainted water “cover-up” not a surprise to political observers

The idea that government officials in Crestwood, Ill., were less than open with the public with regards to the quality of their drinking water supply is not the least bit surprising to anyone who has paid attention to the municipal activity in the 200-plus towns that surround Chicago.

While just about every government entity has its moments when it tries to keep quiet about their activity, Crestwood is a place where municipal officials have turned secrecy into an art form.

THIS IS A place where officials take the attitude that people don’t have any right to information about law enforcement activity in the suburb. Anybody who has ever had to deal with Crestwood police know they follow the lead of municipal officials in thinking that a police report is not a public document.

I’m not talking about getting police to elaborate about incidents in ways that would give the public a greater understanding to what degree there is crime in Crestwood. I mean the actual sparse reports themselves.

While municipal officials theoretically have periodic “press conferences” to answer questions about police incidents, they are worthless unless one is aware of what incidents have been reported so that questions can be asked about them.

In fact, the whole attitude behind Crestwood government throughout the years has been one of, “None of your business!” The town had as its long-time mayor Chester Stranczek (1969 to 2007), and his son, Robert, now heads municipal government.

CRESTWOOD IS TYPICAL of other suburban towns in one aspect – the reason it has a longtime mayoral family is that there really isn’t anyone else interested in taking on the job.

Whenever anyone tried questioning Chester (or now tries questioning Robert), they get a response something along the lines of, “This is the way we do things in Crestwood.” No one has been willing to stand up to that approach.

So with that being the prevailing attitude, does it really come as a shock to learn that not only did Crestwood officials have a clue that there was something wrong with a portion of their municipal water supply, they were more than willing to ignore it.

Maintaining the status quo allowed them to provide drinking water to their 11,000-plus residents at a rate lower than any other town in Cook County. And to the powers that be, they figured that people would be more impressed with paying a lower water bill than they would be to receive better drinking water.

LOWER TAXES TRANSLATED into happy voters. And that was all that mattered to Crestwood officials.

So I can’t help but wonder how the powers that be in Crestwood are reacting to the Chicago Tribune, which on Sunday came up with a story about how municipal officials ignored the concerns of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency about water quality.

It’s probably something along the lines of “liberal media” and “Springfield meddling in our business.”

State officials are focusing their attention these days on trying to understand why the Illinois EPA did not take it upon themselves to notify Crestwood residents about the possible harm from their water supply, which had levels of vinyl chloride and other soil and groundwater pollutants dangerous enough to be carcinogenic (that’s cancer-causing).

STATE OFFICIALS TOLD the Tribune that Crestwood was first notified more than two decades ago that chemicals from a dry-cleaning solvent had leaked into the well from which Crestwood got about 20 percent of its water supply.

That might be a legitimate question, although I would expect someone within the state agency had an ideological problem with overriding the responsibility of the municipality. After all, it should have been the village itself that took action on this issue.

This puts Crestwood in an awkward position. They’re used to being able to ignore things like this, not have to respond to questions. In fact, Stranczek the elder went so far as to tell the SouthtownStar newspaper that he still can’t talk about the issue, citing that old reliable municipal claim of “pending litigation.”

“If there is a lawsuit, our lawyers will be very unhappy if I talk about it,” he told the Tinley Park-based newspaper.

SO FOR THOSE people who think they can show up at the next municipal meeting in Crestwood and “demand some answers,” the answer is likely to be “forget it.” This is going to be one of those issues where no one is going to give a direct answer – and the people who live in that town are now going to get a chill when they turn on the water spigot.

“Is this water from the tainted 20 percent, or from the 80 percent that probably is good,” they will ask themselves, even though it appears that officials stopped using the tainted well about 17 months ago.

It would be nice if this incident started some sort of pressure from the “outside” that forced Crestwood municipal government to be more open about the way it behaves.

Not that I’m optimistic. This is the suburb whose claim to fame in recent years has been the village “sign.”

IT SITS IN front of the village hall on Cicero Avenue and usually contains some “pithy” slogan, which is updated periodically. The slogans are usually the conservative political thoughts of Chester Stranczek – who paid for the sign out of personal funds so he could specifically control its message.

Do you really believe a municipality where leaders are determined to ram their thoughts down your throat (remember a few years ago when the “sign” touted English as the U.S. official language?) is going to willingly admit it was more interested in scoring political points from voters by talking about cheap water, than worrying about the water’s quality?

This is one of those cases where “big government” (as the social conservatives rant about it) is what it will take to get the right thing for the residents of Crestwood.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: In what has been an ongoing debate in Crestwood, the village does not maintain a website (who wants any information easily accessible to the public?). So this highly unofficial website (http://www.villageofcrestwood.com/) will have to suffice.

The state says Crestwood promised they would only use their local well water in an (http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/04/crestwood-pollution-water-well-cancer-carcinogen-mayor-gov-pat-quinn-epa.html) emergency.

The political behavior of Chester Stranczek (http://buyo.blogspot.com/2007/06/mayor-chester-stranczek.html) has gained attention overseas.