High standards are needed to protect Lake Michigan, U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky said in response to the results of a Times investigation of the lake.

"We should improve the law," the Democrat from Merrillville told The Times. "We should raise the bar, we should do it prospectively and we should do it uniformly, across the nation."

Visclosky and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., are two lawmakers reacting to the findings of an eight-month investigation by The Times and nwi.com.

Among the investigation's findings was that while experts see great improvements in water quality, the majority of lake basin pollution comes from Northwest Indiana.

"Despite the progress that has been made since the passage of the Clean Water Act of 1972, we do have a long way to go," Visclosky said. "While the Great Lakes have made gains ... we should be very focused on solving our long-term problems."

Solving those problems will require working together across state lines and using consistent water quality guidelines to ensure "everyone is playing by the same rules."

"We also ought to consciously do our best to determine how far new technologies can take us."

The Times investigation also found the Indiana Department of Environmental Management requires municipal facilities to disinfect wastewater discharges, but Chicago does not.

Chicago does not disinfect discharges from its three largest treatment facilities. It does disinfect at three of its other sites, based on quality standards for human waste bacteria in those receiving waters, according to the district.

Disinfection, often with chlorine, can help stave off contamination from E. coli and other potentially dangerous bacteria that can threaten human health and shutter beaches.

Visclosky said there may be a rationale as to the difference in disinfection rules, but that he didn't know those details.

"But it gets back to the point -- my preference is, we ought to have some uniformity," he said.

"We have a more stringent standard, which I don't want to lower," he said of Indiana's requirement to disinfect. "Others ought to be brought up to that standard."

When BP Whiting and U.S. Steel applied for new wastewater discharge permits last year, some of the companies and IDEM's loudest critics were Indiana's neighbors to the west.

"It troubles me why month after month we have to worry about the governor of Indiana asking for another permit to pollute this lake," Illinois' Durbin said at a news conference last October.

In a written response to The Times' investigation, Durbin said he would not turn down the volume of his criticism.

"I have and will continue to speak out when new permits are proposed in Indiana, Illinois or any state on Lake Michigan that are inconsistent with the goals of the Clean Water Act," Durbin said.

"Any increase in discharge into our waterways is a problem and residents throughout the region are committed to working with local, state and the federal government to clean up, restore and protect Lake Michigan," he said.

Visclosky said it was time to lose any political rhetoric involved with water permitting, and called for a united front in protecting the Great Lakes.

"There was a great controversy attached to BP," Visclosky said. "But no one has shown me that the Environmental Protection Agency or IDEM or the company has broken any federal or state laws.

"Controversy is one thing. Suggesting that IDEM has broken the law is another."