Resident activists and environmental groups advocate for more oversight for the Southeast Side BY LUCIA WHALEN
COURTESY OF NRDC
P
lans have been afoot for months for scrap metal recycler General Iron to move its operations from Lincoln Park to Hegewisch in 2021. But while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has scheduled a required virtual public comment period that will take place in two sessions on May 14, Far Southeast Side residents say the hearing—and the move—should be put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic and, more broadly, to General Iron’s long-standing history of air quality violations and environmental pollution, which residents say will place a disproportionate burden on the low-income community. At one point the largest steel manufacturing region in the world, the Southeast Side is now one of the most heavily polluted areas in the city. High wages attracted immigrants to work at the steel mills in the late 1800s, and the area enjoyed the benefits of a booming steel business well into the twentieth century. Once the steel mills began to close in the 1980s, though, thousands of residents lost their jobs, leaving the area economically decimated. And while the steel mills closed decades ago, they left behind heavy concentrations of lead and manganese, among other pollutants, in the air and ground. 10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
¬ MAY 13, 2020
Today, Southeast Side residents, many of whom are descendants of former steelworkers, carry the weight of the environmental degradation and public health consequences of the industry; the area contains some of the highest concentrations of both air pollution and asthma in the city. Gina Ramirez works as the Midwest outreach manager for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which has partnered with grassroots organizations on the Southeast Side working to prevent General Iron’s move. According to Ramirez, there should be a moratorium on the virtual public comment period and any continued plans to move General Iron to the Far Southeast Side, as the pandemic has added new barriers to the community’s involvement in the decision. “People are trying to put food on the table. There are a lot of essential workers out here. There are a lot of people who don't have internet access. It's a really low-income community, so, you know, to have a public comment period and to organize people is just really, really hard and really frustrating,” Ramirez explained. The proposed new location for General Iron’s facilities is near 116th Street and Burley Avenue along the Calumet River, only one mile away from George
Washington High School. If environmental violations continue, one major concern is whether students will experience negative health effects from air pollution. In Little Village—which is currently recovering from a reckless demolition in the midst of the pandemic—students from Little Village Lawndale High School have been in an ongoing fight against the manufacturing facility BWAY, as students are often unable to hold sports practices outside due to the high levels of pollution nearby. General Iron’s present attempt is not the first time a North Side industry has relocated south. A. Finkl and Sons Steel, which was ranked as the worst polluter in Chicago by a 2005 EPA study and was for years General Iron’s neighbor, moved in 2010 from predominantly white Lincoln Park to a predominantly Black neighborhood at East 93rd Street. In Chicago, the majority of heavy industry, and thus pollution, is on the South Side. Among the NRDC’s top priorities is holding polluters accountable for ethical practice and following EPA guidelines, while lobbying to change city zoning and land-use laws to make the locations of industrial facilities more equitable. “They shouldn't all just be in these low-income communities of color,” Ramirez explained,
adding, “Public health should be at the forefront of these decisions.” General Iron’s move is in part the result of strong advocacy from Lincoln Park residents and Aldermen Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) and Michelle Smith (43rd), who repeatedly reported poor air quality, metallic smells, and noise concerns and lobbied for the city to shut down or move the business. Groups like Clean the North Branch have used Facebook as a tool to organize against General Iron, which has received multiple EPA probes and in the last year alone was cited by both the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Illinois EPA for violating the Clean Air Act. More recently, North Side residents advocating for the removal of General Iron voiced concerns that particulate matter air pollution from the facility would make nearby residents more vulnerable to COVID-19. The relocation effort was also supported by the city Department of Planning and Development’s (DPD) Industrial Corridor Modernization Initiative, which intends “to unleash the potential of select industrial areas for advanced manufacturing and technology-oriented jobs while reinforcing industrial areas.” The initiative involves plans to revitalize areas along the Chicago River and industrial
