Emanuel sues U.S. Steel over toxic spills

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday followed through on his threat to hold U.S. Steel responsible for two toxic spills into a waterway that feeds into Lake Michigan with the potential to endanger Chicago's drinking water.

"We will not stand idly by as U.S. Steel repeatedly disregards and violates federal laws and puts our greatest natural resource at risk," the mayor was quoted as saying in a press release.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court, the city accused U.S. Steel of violating the Clean Water Act by allowing the discharge of nearly 300 pounds of "carcinogenic" hexavalent chromium into the lake last spring and failing to notify downstream users of the impacted waters.

The lawsuit also cited U.S. Steel's handling of an Oct. 25 spill that released 56.7 pounds of chromium after a wastewater treatment system malfunction. That second spill nearly doubled the 30 pounds of potentially cancer-causing chemical over 24 hours that the plant is permitted to release, the city said.

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