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‘Public Nuisance’ Trump Hotel Killed Thousands of Fish in Chicago River: Judge

The cooling system at the Trump Organization’s Chicago skyscraper violated environmental rules, a judge ruled after years of litigation.

A judge ruled that operations at Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago violated environmental regulations intended to protect Chicago River wildlife. The decision, announced Wednesday, comes after several years of litigation. In 2018, then-Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit alleging that Trump Tower’s cooling intake system drew so powerfully from the river that it trapped fish—killing thousands. At the time, the Trump Organization maintained that the allegations against it weren’t fair. “One can only conclude that this decision was motivated by politics,” it said in a statement to The Chicago Tribune. Now, Cook County Circuit Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson has found Trump Tower liable on all counts, writing that it “committed a continuing public nuisance through a series of failures to comply with state and federal law dating back to 2008.” A later hearing will determine what penalties the company will face. The ruling comes amid a presidential election campaign in which Donald Trump has made clear his desire to weaken the Environmental Protection Agency should he win the presidency.