Lightfoot orders new study of Southeast Side pollution after Biden EPA and neighborhood activists raise concerns about proposed scrap shredder
Under pressure from the Biden administration, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday indefinitely delayed making a final decision about a proposed scrap shredder in one of the nation’s most polluted areas.
Lightfoot directed the Chicago Department of Public Health to conduct a more thorough investigation of environmental health risks in low-income, largely Latino and Black neighborhoods on the Southeast Side, where Ohio-based Reserve Management Group wants to shred cars and other metallic waste after closing a similar facility on the wealthy, predominantly white North Side.
The mayor stepped in after Michael Regan, the new administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, reminded Lightfoot the Southeast Side already ranks among the nation’s worst areas in various pollution categories the EPA relies on to determine where it should focus its attention.
Heavily industrialized neighborhoods along the Calumet River are scarred by 250 polluted sites actively monitored by federal and state authorities, Regan noted Friday in a letter to Lightfoot. More than 75 companies on the Southeast Side have been investigated for Clean Air Act violations since 2014 alone.
RMG has largely completed construction of its new shredder and scrap yard on the ruins of the former Republic Steel mill, within sight of George Washington High School near Avenue O and 116th Street. But RMG needs a city permit before it can begin shredding flattened cars, used appliances and other metallic junk — a valuable commodity for companies that make steel from recycled scrap.
Biden and Regan took office promising to make environmental justice a key factor in every decision made by the EPA. An agency screening tool shows the Southeast Side routinely suffers from high amounts of lung-damaging soot and cancer-causing chemicals in the air, and also faces health risks from dozens of hazardous waste sites scattered throughout the area.
“Substantial data indicate the current conditions … epitomize the problem of environmental injustice, resulting from more than a half century of prior actions,” Regan wrote in his letter to Lightfoot.
The mayor’s office knew all of this well before Friday.
In a 2020 study commissioned by Lightfoot appointees, the health department determined Southeast Side residents breathe some of the dirtiest air in the city. Also well documented are residential yards, baseball fields and playgrounds contaminated with heavy metals and toxic chemicals from current and now-defunct companies, including Republic Steel and other steelmakers that abandoned the area decades ago.
Many of the steps recommended by Regan echo reforms that Lightfoot promised in 2020 but so far has failed to adopt.
“The city shares the U.S. EPA’s commitment to environmental justice and public health, and we look forward to partnering with them to conduct a fair, thorough and timely health impact analysis to inform our future decision-making on the RMG permit application,” Lightfoot said in a statement released by her office after Regan’s letter began circulating around Chicago.
The mayor vowed her administration will propose an ordinance by the end of the year that would require the health department to assess if proposed industrial operations would lead to unacceptable health risks in parts of the city burdened by high levels of pollution.
RMG’s proposed shredder has prompted months of protests from Southeast Side residents, including a group that waged a monthlong hunger strike. Lawyers for community groups also petitioned the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to investigate possible civil rights violations by the city, an ongoing probe that prompted a similar review by the EPA of actions taken on behalf of RMG by state officials.
“This Mother’s Day I can’t help but think about the health of my son and the environment of the community that he’s inheriting,” said Gina Ramirez, a third-generation resident. “The cries for justice … are coming from Southeast Side residents all the way to the Biden administration.”
While stopping short of rejecting RMG’s permit outright, the EPA’s nudge for more study increases political pressure to force the company out of densely populated areas.
“It’s clear there is an urgent need for expert evaluation of the public health hazards caused by this site,” U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, said in a statement. “We must help make sure that every American is able to breathe safe air regardless of their ZIP code.”
In its own statement, RMG said its air quality modeling determined the proposed shredder would meet all applicable environmental and health standards. The company said it would “create a new industry standard that will serve as a national model for capturing and controlling emissions from large recycling facilities,” including a competing shredder in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood.
RMG purchased the often-troubled North Side operation in Lincoln Park from the clout-heavy Labkon family. Operating as General Iron Industries near North and Clybourn avenues, the Labkons protected their interests by spreading more than $500,000 among local politicians during the past decade, and by hiring City Hall lobbyists close to two former mayors, Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel.
At least of the family members, Adam Labkon, is part-owner of the proposed Southeast Side shredder.
