Illinois EPA opposes proposed toxic waste dump expansion on Southeast Side lakefront
'This is a major win for our community, to have both the Illinois attorney general and the Illinois EPA say that the expansion of this toxic landfill will not be (approved),' said Amalia NietoGomez, executive director of social justice nonprofit Alliance of the Southeast.
Since 1984, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been dumping toxic sediment dredged from the Calumet River into the now-full containment site, which contains mercury, arsenic and polychlorinated biphenyls or PBCs. After reaching capacity or after 10 years, whichever came first, the property was to be returned to the Chicago Park District to restore as a park for the largely Black and Latino community.
Four decades later, the property hasn't been turned over to the community, and the Army Corps wants to raise the dump 25 feet, piling an additional 1 million cubic yards of toxic sediment over another 20 years. In 2023, the Alliance of the Southeast and Friends of the Parks sued the Army Corps to stop the expansion.
So far, the Illinois EPA has denied the federal agency all of the state water quality permits it would need to proceed. The state's Attorney General Kwame Raoul has also staunchly opposed the proposed project; in 2024 he filed an amicus brief in support of turning the dump into a public park.
More recently on Jan. 16, Raoul filed — alongside a supplemental brief with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois — a letter that the state's environmental agency had sent to the Army Corps the previous day. In that letter, the Illinois EPA said the Army Corps' proposal is contrary to some environmental regulations, including an Illinois law that prohibits the construction of new landfills or the expansion of existing landfills in Cook County.
The plaintiffs' lead attorney Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, called the Illinois EPA letter a 'vital step forward' to a 'long-delayed victory' in a news release.
'It's time for the Army Corps to recognize it lacks the legal authority to build on this lakefront site and move forward with better alternative solutions,' he said. 'Chicago's lakefront is for people and parks, not toxic waste dumps. The long-promised park should now go forward for Chicagoans to use and enjoy.'
After the letter was filed, the center's attorneys asked to meet with the Army Corps' legal team to discuss productive next steps. A meeting with the federal judge hearing the case has been set for Monday. The Army Corps declined to comment due to ongoing litigation.
Last year, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling largely seen as anti-environment overturned 40 years of legal precedent that required courts to defer to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous statutes. But the Environmental Law and Policy Center hopes to leverage the ruling in its favor, using it to argue that the judge has full discretion to determine whether the Army Corps overstepped when determining it could keep and expand the dump site.
The plaintiffs hope the property can be remediated and transformed into an extension of nearby Calumet Park, where neighborhood children swim and play. The existing toxic sediment has already given community members plenty of cause for concern.
'The only thing that separates the (disposal site) from Calumet Park is a chainlink fence,' NietoGomez said. 'So it's not just close, I mean, it's right there.'
Restoring the site would provide more recreational green spaces in a ward that has long been overburdened with pollution from the steel and petroleum coke industries, where asthma and cancer rates are high.
Environment | A Supreme Court decision largely seen as anti-environment may help protect the Southeast Side
Environment | Economic opportunity or environmental burden? Massive real estate project proposed for Southeast Side ignites debate
Environment | PsiQuantum plans to build one of the world's first commercially useful quantum computers in Chicago — despite huge obstacles
People living on the Southeast Side breathe some of the city's dirtiest air, monitoring data shows. More than 75 polluters in the area have been investigated for Clean Air Act violations since 2014, including companies that contaminated yards and playgrounds with brain-damaging manganese and lung-damaging petcoke.
'If we have concerns about the current (dump site), it doesn't make sense to amplify those concerns and build more of the same on top,' NietoGomez said.
She also said it would be a 'bad idea' to expand the landfill on the lakeshore where — as climate change intensifies storms and wave surges, as well as fluctuations in lake levels — the facility would be at risk of rupture.
But the Army Corps contends they need somewhere to dispose of the sediment that has to be routinely dredged from the Calumet River so that commercial ships can pass through waterways connecting the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River basin.
In the Illinois EPA letter, acting director James Jennings urged the Army Corps 'to explore alternative means to manage dredged materials,' including its disposal at permitted landfills or even 'upland beneficial use,' which would entail its use on dry land for habitat creation, land reclamation, soil enhancement or even construction materials.
The lawsuit largely centers around the plaintiffs' claims that the Army Corps didn't consider alternative locations for a new dump or adequately assess the risks of expanding the current site.
'They told the Southeast Side to pick their poison and choose from six sites, and they were all located within the 10th Ward,' NietoGomez said. It caused uproar within the community. 'Enough is enough. We're sick and tired of being your dumping ground.'
As President Donald Trump's deregulatory agenda threatens environmental policies and rules regarding clean air, clean water, toxic chemicals and more, NietoGomez feels encouraged by the state's opposition to expanding the dump site.
'Going forward, dealing with the new administration,' she said, 'I think it's more important than ever that we enforce the protections that we do have, whether that be at the city, county, state or federal level. … That's why the letters from both the Illinois attorney general's office and Illinois EPA carry particular weight.'
adperez@chicagotribune.com
Chicago Tribune's Michael Hawthorne and Karina Atkins contributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Democrats disagree (again). This time, it's about school vouchers.
States will have the ability to opt in or out, presenting Democratic governors with a difficult decision, and one that competing advocacy groups are trying to influence. Democrats for Education Reform, a group closely affiliated with veterans of the Obama administration, has become a leading voice urging the party to cross what has long been a red line, and embrace some forms of private school choice — including the Trump program. The group has prominent allies, including Arne Duncan, who served as secretary of education under President Obama. Duncan is working for the group as a consultant. But the group's new stance in favor of vouchers is provocative within the party — so much so that two former leaders of the organization have quit and are creating a rival group that will oppose vouchers, while supporting other forms of school choice. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Trump's private school choice program is funded by a federal tax credit, and will offer families of most income levels scholarships that can be used for private school tuition, tutoring or other education expenses. Advertisement The group's chief executive, Jorge Elorza, a former mayor of Providence, has argued vouchers are popular with many of the working-class Black and Latino voters who tilted toward Trump in the 2024 presidential election, and whom Democrats are desperate to win back. Advertisement This past weekend, Elorza traveled to a Democratic Governors Association meeting in Madison, Wisc., to make his case. He has been pointing to a provision in Trump's budget bill that will potentially allow the voucher dollars to be spent on not only private school tuition, but also tutoring or exam fees for students enrolled in traditional public schools. He called opting into the program 'a no-brainer.' 'This is literally free money,' he said, 'that is broadly supported by the majority of voters who have steadily drifted away from the party. It just makes sense.' It could be difficult to convince Democratic governors. Many are closely allied to teachers unions, which have resisted vouchers for decades. The unions argue vouchers leech students and dollars from public education. 'Vouchers are a vehicle to abandon public education,' said Randi Weingarten, the influential president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation's second-largest teachers' union. In line with the unions, many Democratic politicians have focused their arguments on protecting public school funding. They are also intent on fighting Trump's efforts to dismantle the Department of Education and end racial equity efforts. In a sign of just how fractured Democrats are, a third camp is emerging, situated somewhere between the reform group and the unions. Two former staff members of the group are starting a political action committee and a think tank that will reject vouchers while continuing to push for the expansion of the public charter school sector — schools that are publicly funded, but independently run, and are typically not unionized. The groups will also support other ways for parents to exercise choice, such as making it easier for students to attend public schools outside of their residential zones, and they will push for all schools to be held accountable for student learning outcomes. The political action committee, the Center for Strong Public Schools Action Fund, will support candidates who align with those stances, especially in the South. Advertisement Alisha Thomas Searcy, one of the founders, previously served as the rerform group's regional president for the South, and is a former Georgia Democratic state legislator and charter school executive. Her partner in the new venture, Garry Jones, previously served as the group's political director in Texas. Searcy and Jones split with the group after experiencing legislative battles over private school choice in Georgia and Texas, which are among 18 Republican-leaning states that now offer education savings accounts. These accounts are a type of flexible private school voucher that allows parents to spend taxpayer dollars on private education, for-profit virtual learning, tutoring and homeschooling. Searcy declined to name the funders of the new political action group and think tank. She said they will offer 'a bold, clear vision as Democrats, to show that we are the party that protects public education from those privatization and other attacks, and demands that it work for every student.' Democrats who do support private school choice — including those in the coalition — are looking expectantly toward some of the younger moderate governors in the party, several of whom are being discussed as potential presidential candidates in 2028. Maryland Governor Wes Moore is one of them. In a statement, a spokesperson said the governor was still evaluating the new federal voucher program. A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who has supported school choice in the past, said his administration was also reviewing the program, and pointed out that it does not go into effect until 2027. Advertisement This article originally appeared in .
UPI
3 hours ago
- UPI
Justice Department ends 44-year consent decree on civil service exams
Aug. 4 (UPI) -- The Justice Department announced Monday its Civil Rights Division would end a decades-old consent decree, which banned the federal government from using civil service exams to hire qualified candidates. Luevano v. Director, Office of Personnel Management, a 1979 lawsuit filed during the Carter administration, accused the federal government's Professional and Administrative Career Examination -- or PACE -- of discriminating against Black and Hispanic applicants. A consent decree was entered in 1981, making civil service exams obsolete for the next 44 years. In March, the Trump administration filed a motion to terminate it. "For over four decades, this decree has hampered the federal government from hiring the top talent of our nation," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "Today, the Justice Department removed that barrier and reopened federal employment opportunities based on merit -- not race." Angel Luevano, who filed the case more than forty years ago, said attorneys for both sides met with the U.S. District Court judge for the District of Columbia last week to resolve the issue. "The Decree has had its usefulness and a tremendous effect on the country," Luevano said. "Millions of minorities and women hold jobs because of that class action lawsuit. It wasn't DEI. It didn't just benefit minorities and women. The alternative Outstanding Scholar Program ... was actually used 70% by Whites." Luevano said he took the PACE exam, before filing the lawsuit, to get into a federal job and achieved a passing grade of 80, but did not get referred to federal openings because only those with 100 on their tests got jobs. "I'm extremely proud of the effect that it has had on federal hires and getting minorities and women into federal jobs," he added. "It affected my decision to join, it was the key for me to join federal civil rights compliance in the Labor Department." On Monday, the Justice Department called the federal government's hiring practices over the last four decades "flawed and outdated theories of diversity, equity and inclusion." "It's simple, competence and merit are the standards by which we should all be judged; nothing more and nothing less," said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the District of Columbia. "It's about time people are judged, not by their identity, but instead 'by the content of their character.'"
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Post to Coast: New York Post plans a California newspaper
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Post is launching a California tabloid newspaper and news site next year, the company announced Monday, bringing an assertive, irreverent and conservative-friendly fixture of the Big Apple media landscape to the Golden State. In the process, it is creating a 21st-century rarity: a new American newspaper with a robust print edition. Adding another title to Rupert Murdoch 's media empire, The California Post is setting out to cover politics, local news, business, entertainment and sports in the nation's most populous state, while drawing and building on the venerable New York paper's national coverage. Plans for the Los Angeles-based paper call for a print edition seven days a week plus a website, social media accounts and video and audio pieces. 'There is no doubt that the Post will play a crucial role in engaging and enlightening readers, who are starved of serious reporting and puckish wit,' Robert Thomson, chief executive of Post corporate parent News Corp., said in a statement. In typically brash and punchy Post fashion, he portrayed California as plagued by 'jaundiced, jaded journalism." It enters at a bumpy moment for its industry However bold its intentions, the venture is being launched into a turbulent atmosphere for the news business, particularly for print papers. More than 3,200 of them have closed nationwide since 2005, according to figures kept by Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. The online world spawned new information sources and influencers, changed news consumers' tastes and habits and upended the advertising market on which newspapers relied. 'While it's true the media landscape is challenging, The New York Post has been finding success through its unique voice, editorial lens and quality coverage. That same formula is tailor-made for California,' said the New York Post Media Group. It includes the Post and some other media properties. California, with a population of nearly 40 million, still has hundreds of newspapers, including dailies in and around Los Angeles and other major cities. But the nation's second-most-populous city hasn't had a dedicated tabloid focused on regional issues in recent memory, according to Danny Bakewell, president of the Los Angeles Press Club. 'It's really an untested market here,' said Bakewell, who is editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly focused on the city's Black population. 'L.A. is always ready for good-quality news reporting, and particularly in this moment when so many other papers are shrinking and disappearing, it could be a really unique opportunity.' The Post is a unique beast There is no U.S. newspaper quite like the 224-year-old New York Post. It was founded by no less a luminary than Alexander Hamilton, the country's first treasury secretary, an author of the Federalist Papers, the victim of a duel at the hands of the vice president and the inspiration for the Broadway smash 'Hamilton.' Murdoch, News Corp.'s founder and now its chairman emeritus, bought the Post in 1976, sold it a dozen years later, then repurchased it in 1993. The Post is known for its relentless and skewering approach to reporting, its facility with sensational or racy subject matter, its Page Six gossip column, and the paper's huge and often memorable front-page headlines — see, for example, 1983's 'Headless Body in Topless Bar.' At the same time, the Post is a player in both local and national politics. It routinely pushes, from the right, on 'wokeness' and other culture-war pressure points, and it has broken such political stories as the Hunter Biden laptop saga. The Post has an avid reader in President Donald Trump, who gave its 'Pod Force One' podcast an interview as recently as last month. In recent years, the Post's website and such related sites as have built a large and far-flung digital audience, 90% of it outside the New York media market, according to the company. With the Los Angeles readership second only to New York's, The California Post "is the next manifestation of our national brand,' Editor-in-Chief Keith Poole said in a statement. He'll also be involved in overseeing the California paper with its editor-in-chief, Nick Papps, who has worked with News Corp.'s Australian outlets for decades, including a stint as an L.A.-based correspondent. The company didn't specify how many journalists The California Post will have. ___ Associated Press writer Jake Offenhartz contributed from Los Angeles.
