A group of dedicated Great Lakes surfers is always chasing the next big wave, even if it means surfing in dangerous water alongside grimy landscapes home to some of the area’s largest polluters.
Longtime surfer Rex Flodstrom says “the refineries, flame towers, and industry make a unique backdrop for surfing. Sometimes you see irregular clouds of black or orange smoke.”
Flodstrom, a 46 year-old artist who lives in Streeterville, says the surfers are like “canaries in the coal mine just immersed in the water. Sometimes the water has a funny smell or taste. You ingest some on accident and you’re a little worried about that.”
Toxic Surf
U.S. Steel, under EPA oversight, collected water samples from the waterway on April 11 that contained chromium levels several hundred times greater than those allowed under its permits, the EPA reported. Levels at the point where the waterway meets Lake Michigan were at least twice the amount allowed.
“The weekend following U.S. Steel’s October 2017 illegal chromium discharge, surfing conditions on the Southend were among the best of the year,” the lawsuit states. “Surfrider members were surfing on the Southend that weekend and surfers were at the Portage Lakefront without any awareness of U.S. Steel’s illegal discharge.”
Surfers say they have not had similar problems at other locations in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Surfrider’s suit was joined by the city of Chicago, which says it was left unaware of the chromium spills. (U.S. Steel has violated its discharge permit at least four times since 2013.) After the April 2017 spill, it took five days for chromium levels to return to normal in the water surrounding the 68th Street intake crib, one of the locations where the city collects drinking water, the suit says. The city’s lawsuit claims that U.S. Steel’s activity harms everyone whose drinking water comes from Lake Michigan.
