Daley to Feds: “Go Swim in the Potomac”

"The federal government should take a look out their window and figure out what the Potomac is all about, first of all."

That's Mayor Daley returning serve after the Obama administration filed a letter with the Illinois Pollution Control Board, calling for efforts to make the Chicago River safe for swimmers.

"It's an unfunded mandate," Daley said. "The federal government is not in the business of cleaning up rivers in this country."

Daley makes a good point: considering the industrial past of Chicago, not to mention the river's reversing history, it's amazing how clean it actually is.

The mayor says efforts are already underway to make the river a cleaner waterway. Daley also says if the feds wanted to do something about it they could have funded a deep tunnel sewage project to route waste away from the river.

When asked if he thought it was a good goal to make the Chicago River a swimming destination, Daley said: "Go swim in the Potomac."

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