JUL.

a

Dear

Illinois

Pollution

Control

Board,

I

really

think

that

pollution

in

the

lake

and

river

or

any

water

body

is driving

sea

creatures

wild

with

all

of

this

junk

in

there.

You

see,

my

class,

teachers,

and

I recently

took

tests

for

the

river.

Most

of

our

test

results

were

basically

bad

results

under

3 or

4.The

main

teacher

of

the

trip

said

numbers

under

3

or 4

were

like

grades

C

or

a

D. The

nature

of

the

water

is

in

grave

danger,

so

please

do

something

about

or

else

your

name

will

not

make

any

sense.

For

crying

out

loud,

you

are

the

Illinois

Pollution

Control

Board

(l.P.C.B).

So

please

just

do

something

about

this

madness.

I could

not

imagine

living

in

a

world

where

water

everywhere

was

polluted,

because

going

to

begin

to

live

in

one.

You

see,

the

first

field

trip

that

we

went

on

this

year,

was

the

river

to

do some

testing

because

one

of

our

teachers

told

us

what

was

going

wrong.

After

our

first

field

trip,

the water

testing

results

were

below

3

which

meant

it

was

similar

to

a grade

C

or D.

Just

some

pollution

in

the water

can

cause

a

new

species

to

be

born

to come

out with

a

problem.

Since

you

are

a

pollution

control

board,

I

say

you

should

at

least

make

a

net

that

is

capable

of holding

enough

oxygen

underneath

but

hold

all the

garbage

on

top.

All

I

am

trying

to

say

here

is

that

you

people

are

professionals

and

you

should

know

what

you

are

doing

with

these

rivers.

I want

to

grow

up

with

memories

of the

rivers

near

my

area,

but

clean

rivers.

On the

news,

reporters

have,

well,

been

reporting

that

pollution

under

the

water

is

a little

more

serious

than

pollution

up in

our

atmosphere.

1

---

So,

my

opinion

on

pollution

is

that

we should

come

up

with

a

new

era of

technology

that

is

efficient

and

healthy

for

the

economy.

At

the

same

time,

we need

to improve

the

environment

for

the

species

here

on

our

Earth.

As

the

future

comes

closer

and

closer

to

our

lives,

we

need

an

answer,

a

solution

to pollution.

Sincerely,

A student

caring

for

Earth,

Enrique

Escalante

2

---

Dear IL State Pollution Control Board,

sr

Hi I’m Megan and my school (Waters) did a

ttu

the water in the Chicago River! Let’s just say if the

river

was a student in a school it would get and

D---! I know

that’s

a

very poor score and

we

need to

improve

it! I

think

that we need to help save the Chicago

River before it’s too

late and my class

and ecology teacher Mr. Leki agrees!

Imagine nice clean rivers were there are blue

herons,

good fish, and night time animals like

raccoons,

possums, andfoxes! Because all I see when I go are

ducks

and

geese! But

we

can’t fix it on our own and we can’t fix

it completely! The problem

I

think is too much to

handle

for any one but if we can make I difference in any

way, I

would have to ask you the fallowing

questions!

Ifyou would be so grateful to in some way help

us to

save the Chicago

River

like maybe

sending some kind of

volunteer

help

for when we

go to

the Chicago river

or

send some

letters

of advice to us so we can help

the

river!

That would be

greatly appreciated! But I also have some

questions of concern of the river.

I wanted to know what you are doing to help

our

river. Ifyou are even doing anything,

I wanted to know in

detail

what? I hope you will

get

back to me because

it is

also

your responsibility to help us and the

river! Why

does the

river look so dirty? Because last time I checked

you

were the pollution

control

board! So why is it

the

river

like that? Please tell me

and

write me what are you

doing because my class and my school test the

water.

Help the river and the Chicago environment! You

are.part

to

the Pollution Control Board. Please help.

Sincerely,

Megan Turner

---

Dear

Illinois

State

Pollution

Control Board,

rd

I

am

12

years

old

and

a

student

at

Thomas

J.

Waters

Elementary

school.

Lately,

we

have

been

visiting

the

Chicago

River

and

doing

tests

to

see

how

our

river

is

doing.

During

our

trips

we

write

about

the

river

what

we

see,

and

what

we

smell.

After

we

finish

writing

we

sit

in

a circle

by

the

river

and

we

do

the

tests.

Once we

finish

with

the

test

we

go

and

look

for

life

in

rocks

with

our

environment

teacher

Mr.

Leki.

We

leave

and

then

wait

days

to

see

the

results.

Today,

our

teacher

Mr.

Leki

told

us

the

results

in

all

the

tests

that

we

did

the

river

got

a

grade

of

C+.

In

the

bug

tests

the

river

got

a

grade

of

D.

As

you

can

tell

these

results

are

very

bad,

because

of

this

all

of

the

life

in

the

river

is

dying

out.

Soon,

all

the

animal

life

from

the

river

will

be

extinct.

Then,

the

river

will

be

forbidden

from

entering

and

people

won’t

be

able

to

do

the

things

they

like

to

do

most.

For

example,

people won’t

be

able

to

go

fishing,

or

sit

and

enjoy

the

peaceful

quietness

of

the

river.

No

animals

would

be

allowed

to

roam

the

roads

and

they

wouldn’t

be

able

to

play

with

children

on

the

field.

Another

huge

problem

that

causes

pollution

in

the

river

is

chemicals

from

dishwasher

soap.

Dishwasher

soap

is

used

to

wash

dishes

then

it

is

accidentally

dumped

into

the

river,

which

harms

plant

life

and

animal

life.

Even

though

it’s

against

the

law

people

still

“accidentally”

dump

it

in,

the

soap attacks

the

oxygen

and

soon

there

is

little

or

no

oxygen

left.

This

causes

animals

to

die

and

soon

we

won’t

be

able

to

feed

ducks, look

at

ducklings,

and

we

won’t

be

able

to

enjoy

the

sounds

that

they

make.

PLEASE

HELP

US!!!!

Sincerely,

Annette

Aragon

---

Dear Illinois Pollution Control Board,

)

/

OIILitIo,

C

1

49JNoIs

You may not know me, I am Antonio Gamez. My class room 303 frorif

8

°ard

Thomas

j

Waters

recently

visited

the Chicago River, to

make

some

important

tests

with the water. Our results didn’t change much from our last

trip, but still the results are pretty bad. Is there anything you can do to

fix

this enormous

problem? Is there

any way you could help to

clean our river?

Native species and

plants

are being killed off painfully

every

day, due to

the

fact

that the

river is immensely contaminated. I

do

realize that cleaning the

river

would take

a

great amount

of efforts, but

that is precisely what we

need

;

strong leaders.

You don’t even

have

to think about the Environment

if

you

don’t

want

to,

you

don’t even have to think

about

the

river itself if

you

don’t wish to do so.

Think about the community around you, children and adults alike.

Day

by

day

they are

victims

of

this

horrible act. For goodness sake,

we practically

get our

drinking water from here! Is it even healthy

to

pollute the river and

environment

this

way?

I’m

really not

sure,

but I am sure

of one thing: it is

not too late to

fix our river. And it is

up to us to do

the job, for NO ONE will

do the job

for

us.

Let’s not think what

the

earth

can do

for us, let’s think

about

what

W

can do for the earth. And I

am sure you

agree with this as

well, we can give the earth something much better that this don’t you think?

I mean, think

for

a second, do you realize that it is our own

home we’re

talking about

here? Wouldn’t

you

love to keep it clean? We

can

start a

change by helping the river; we should start

by

helping ourselves.

Sincerely,

Antonio Gamez

---

Dear Illinois State Pollution Center

Board,

STPJ

OF

LUtOL.

ollU.’Ofl

Control

BorO

Hello I

am

Aliah of

Thomas J. Waters Elementary School. Here at

Waters we

take

pride

in our

Chicago

River. We have gone on multiple trips

to the

Chicago

River.

While we visited the river

we

studied

aqua

life in the

water

and taken several tests on the river water.

Some

of the

tests

include

the Dissolved Oxygen test and other

tests

like

the tests

for Phosphates and

Nitrates. While doing these tests and some others we discovered

that

there

was

human waste in the waters like

hair and trash. This shows that the water

is being cleansed but not cleansed

enough. This means we are not doing

something

because if every other state can keep their water clean than

so

can

we. If we

have

to add another process to the water cleaning system then so

be it. Never in my

lifetime

have I seen a state were they had to separate the

river

from other water sources

with series of humongous gates because it

was so

filthy. It is shameful

and embarrassing I’m sure we can do better. All

we

need

is

a

couple

of great thinkers, some money and brainstorm.

I

already

have one idea we could use. I noticed that people like

to

hang around the

Chicago River Park. It’s a nice

place

to go fishing and play soccer. I also

noticed there weren’t any garbage

cans around the park area making the

river

a

convenient place to

dump. Well I have a solution and it revolves

around some trash bins. All we have

to do is buy maybe five trash cans

for

the

park. One by the play ground,

two by the field and three along the

path

of the

river (not to close to the water©).

Then there is a more

convenient

place to dump and it’s not in the river. Right know your probably thinking

just because we set down some garbage cans

does not

mean people will still

put garbage in the bins. So I have another plan,

we make a

fine for anyone

who

litters from 100-300

$

it doesn’t matter

you

decide

just as

long

as

it

shies people away from the idea of littering. I also think that we should add

another

step

to the water cleansing

process

because who ever is cleaning it

needs to clean it more. Every time I visit the Chicago River I

always

want

to

swim in it or dip my feet in it,

but

I

can’t because I’m told

it

is to dirty

and

filled with chemicals. We as a community have

made a mess of the

Chicago

River and we as a community will fix

it

instead of trying to ignore it.

Sincerely,

Aliah

---

Max Michaels

S

‘

Waters school

JUL

ii

4540 n. Campbell

Chicago,

IL 60625

OI!Utfr

0c

0

h1’40’S

5/28/09

OIBord

Dear Illinois Pollution Control Board

I,

Max Michaels am

sad to say the tests we ran on our

great

Chicago

River have all been low. If the river was a student in school they would be

stuck in summer school big time. I think you should add in sponges to

cleanse

our water

next

to our ways of cleaning the water I hope we can find

a way to

clean our water

that

dose not harm our planet.

There

is always

adding in more facilities that will clean the

water

in

safe ways. Maybe

start

a research fund for researching ways to clean

our

water

with out harming it.

The water treatment plants that could be

built

could

also be used to make energy while

is moving through. It could

open

a

whole

new world for making energy for

homes. The plants could be

environment friendly with

solar

panels

and wind turbines and the third

from

of energy

water. The excess power

could be stored and donated to

people

how

can barely pay their energy bills.

We don’t need just

one

of these

plants

we need

at least 5 of them and

they

can’t pollute at all no waste coming

out

of the plants.

No garbage at all just recycling nothing else but clean energy and

fresh water and we can’t just mix it back in with the dirty water we need to

block of the water coming in with the water coming out so we don’t mix the

water and get the same results that we had before that’s the big mistake we

are

doing right

now.

When

we dump the treated water back into the river

that

we are treating it mixes and then becomes dirty water once

more.

We

need

to fix what we have done. It’s our fault we are

living

in

a

dieing planet

we

need to save it before its gone forever. Please

take my

letter in

consideration.

Deep

deep consideration.

Sincerely,

Max Michaels