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.
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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.
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