* Deep Tunnel has not exactly been a rousing success at keeping pollution out of Lake Michigan…

Lake Michigan, long considered the sewage outlet of last resort, has been hit harder during the past four years than it was in the previous two decades combined.

Between 2007 and 2010, records show, the agency in charge of Deep Tunnel dumped nearly 19 billion gallons of storm water teeming with disease-causing and fish-killing waste into the Great Lake, the source of drinking water for 7 million people in Chicago and its suburbs. By contrast, 12 billion gallons poured out between 1985 and 2006 […]

Last year alone, sewage overflows into local streams contained an estimated 335 million pounds of suspended solids, a technical term for human and industrial waste and debris contaminating the water. Signs caution that the waterways are “not suitable for any human body contact” and “may contain bacteria that can cause illness.”

District officials now say that while building the tunnels, engineers realized that they would need to rely more on the second phase of the project — the flood-control reservoirs — to reduce pollution. Another complicating factor is that the district was forced early on to limit how fast water drained into the system. Shortly after the first tunnels were opened, rapid changes in water pressure shot geysers of sewage out of ventilation shafts along city streets, in one case flooding the car of a 61-year-old Bridgeport woman who had stopped above a manhole grate.

Mayor Daley and others have routinely blamed Wisconsin for the lake’s pollution problems, but his own city is a major culprit. Go read all of Michael Hawthorne’s story. He’s a great environmental reporter and he’s done it again.

* But then there was this from the Tribune editorial board…

Government energy policy needs a reset at the state and national levels. Heavily subsidized efforts to harness the power of the sun, wind and atom have achieved less than anticipated. The pressure’s on to scale back the huge government investment in developing a sustainable, environmentally friendly future.

Because, you know, no government subsidies are ever needed for the oil industry. Funny, but I don’t seem to recall any multi-national military task force being deployed to prevent solar or wind power prices from skyrocketing (um, I mean, for humanitarian reasons to protect the revolting citizenry in a major solar/wind generating country). And, as we all know, the oil industry receives no other federal assistance, ever. Apparently, wars and gigantic tax breaks are free.

What an ill-timed editorial that was.

* The Trib’s editorial was ostensibly about supporting Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of the Leucadia coal gasification project in Chicago. It probably wasn’t a well-drafted bill. Indiana has approved a similar plant without much controversy because the state’s leaders claim to have included more consumer protections. Indiana’s project also has fewer environmental safeguards. But this really bothered me…

Having earlier secured $10 million from Illinois to study construction costs, Leucadia is certain it can build the Rockport [Indiana] plant for $2.65 billion, Lubbers said.

Great. We just financed the Hoosiers’ construction study. And this is bogus and Quinn knows it…

After Quinn killed the projects in Illinois, following public protests, he told the Chicago Tribune that “our investments in clean coal must not come at the expense of consumers.”

Consumers are also taxpayers, governor. And if clean coal was cheap, they’d be doing it already. Somebody’s gotta pay if we want to keep using that stuff.

* Before you commence commenting, let’s try to avoid a big debate on the Libyan conflict. I used it as only the latest example of US military intervention in an oil-producing country. The specifics of this intervention should be left to other publications.

* Related…

* Utilities, advocates at odds over regulatory changes: A controversial bill that would change the way Illinois sets utility rates in order to create incentives for companies to upgrade their electric power and gas lines is still alive, its sponsor said, but changes are being negotiated. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, D-Orland Park, said he will use the upcoming one-week break in the General Assembly’s schedule to try to draft a compromise to House Bill 14 that will allow lawmakers to consider the bill in early April… “We’ve seen those changes. They make something horrible less horrible, (but) the attorney general still objects,” said Paul Gaynor, chief of the public interest division for Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

* Exelon faces regulatory fallout after Japanese nuclear disaster: “These nuclear plants were believed to have operating lives of about 40 years,” says Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago and a frequent Exelon critic. “Exelon has run the plants really hard. . . .It is wise and prudent to press the pause button” on the expansion plans.

* Worth the risk? Japan disaster could change opinions

* Gas prices 76 cents higher than last year

* Illinois-based Air National Guard to help establish no-fly zone in Libya