"A coalition of conservation groups has made good on its threat to take the owners of Chicago's sewage treatment plants to court over the foul stuff they have been discharging into the Chicago River for more than a century.

The federal lawsuit, filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and Prairie Rivers United, accuses the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago of chronic violations of the Clean Water Act.

Chicago is unlike other U.S. cities in that it doesn't disinfect its treated human waste before discharging it into rivers and canals."

Dan Egan reports for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel May 3, 2011. [2]