In this April 6, 2017 file photo, strong winds send huge waves at the Lake Michigan shoreline at South Haven Michigan. (Mark Bugnaski / Kalamazoo Gazette via AP, File)
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A program that has pumped $2.7 billion into healing long-term injuries to the Great Lakes environment has received authorization from Congress to continue another five years.

In this Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020, file photo provided by the Michigan Office of the Governor, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the state during a speech in Lansing, Mich. (Michigan Office of the Governor via AP, File)

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took legal action Friday to shut down a pipeline that carries oil beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes.

(Images Money / Flickr)
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Flushing unused or expired prescription drugs down the toilet is “neither safe nor responsible,” says one local official. A new bill would establish convenient statewide locations for their collection instead.

A silver carp captured in June 2017 in the Illinois Waterway below the T.J. O’Brien Lock and Dam, about 9 miles from Lake Michigan. (Courtesy Illinois Department of Natural Resources)

Officials say genetic material from Asian carp has been detected near Lake Michigan, but a follow-up search turned up none of the invasive fish.

(Courtesy of the University of Illinois)

We discuss the latest science headlines with Rabiah Mayas, associate director of the Science in Society program at Northwestern University.

A silver carp captured in June 2017 in the Illinois Waterway below the T.J. O’Brien Lock and Dam, about 9 miles from Lake Michigan. (Courtesy Illinois Department of Natural Resources)

If you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em. That’s the apparent strategy behind a new state grant program that will provide funding to companies that harvest and sell Asian carp.

Gov. Bruce Rauner (Chicago Tonight file photo)

Michigan offered to give Illinois $8 million to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. But Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has a different idea about how to spend the money. 

A silver carp captured in June 2017 in the Illinois Waterway below the T.J. O’Brien Lock and Dam, about 9 miles from Lake Michigan. (Courtesy Illinois Department of Natural Resources)

Additional engineering and design work has more than doubled the cost of a long-awaited plan to prevent invasive Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes, according to federal officials.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin appears on “Chicago Tonight” on Feb. 21, 2018.
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U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is calling for federal action following a report that identified an Illinois meat-processing plant as the worst-polluting plant of its type in the country.

A beef-processing plant (istanbulimage / iStock)
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A pork-processing plant in western Illinois released an average of nearly 2,000 pounds of harmful nitrogen per day into a tributary of the Illinois River last year, according to a new report.

Silver carp jumping into a boat. (Evan Garcia / Chicago Tonight)

Each year, self-proclaimed “rednecks” try to rid the Illinois River of Asian carp – one flying fish at a time. We visit the small town of Bath for a look.

Cook County Fisheries biologists Jim Phillips and Steve Silic in the walleye hatchery.

Though not a terribly romantic process, walleye breeding at the Cook County Forest Preserve District produces thousands of young fish for county lakes. We take a closer look.

A silver carp was captured in June in the Illinois Waterway below the T.J. O’Brien Lock and Dam, about 9 miles from Lake Michigan. (Courtesy of Illinois Department of Natural Resources)

Nearly a dozen U.S. senators, including Dick Durbin of Illinois, are speaking out about the latest delay over a plan to keep invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.

(Jonathunder / Wikimedia Commons)

The remarkable comeback of 13 sport fish species in the Illinois River began just after implementation of the Clean Water Act, according to a new study by the Illinois Natural History Survey. 

The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers says the best place to stop Asian carp from getting into the Great Lakes is the Brandon Road Lock and Dam in Joliet. But the state says the plan is too expensive for Illinois taxpayers and the shipping industry.

Along Wolf Lake on Chicago’s Southeast Side lies the only Illinois state park within city limits, where visitors can find fishing spots, biking trails – and invasive species.