Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed an amicus brief in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) over the Corps’ plan to expand a toxic materials disposal facility along the shores of Lake Michigan on Chicago’s Southeast Side. Raoul’s brief highlights the long history of environmental harm experienced by Southeast Side neighborhoods and the increased occurrences of asthma, cancer and other serious medical issues that local residents face. The brief also examines the facility’s state permitting issues and past enforcement actions the Attorney General’s office has taken. The lawsuit was filed by community organizations opposing the expansion of the disposal facility, the Alliance of the Southeast and Friends of the Parks that are represented by the Environmental Law and Policy Center public interest attorneys.
The facility, located in an environmental justice community, is used by the Corps to handle and dispose of dredged material from local waterways, including the nearby Calumet River and harbor. The dredged material contains highly toxic materials, including mercury, arsenic and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The Corps is seeking to expand the facility vertically to accommodate an additional 530,000 cubic yards of toxic waste over the next 20 years, despite having previously promised to return the lakefront property to the Chicago Parks District when the facility was full. The proposed expansion would occur less than a mile from a residential neighborhood, Douglas Taylor Elementary School, and recreational areas including Calumet Park, Calumet Beach, and softball, soccer and baseball fields.
“The residents of the Southeast Side of Chicago have shouldered an unfair share of environmental harm for far too long,” Raoul said. “Prohibiting the expansion of this facility is an important step to prioritize residents’ quality of life and bring long overdue environmental justice to a Chicago community that has been overlooked for too many decades in our city’s history.”
Attorney General Raoul filed the brief in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division in his role as the state’s chief law enforcement officer who is responsible for enforcing environmental laws and regulations. The brief is part of his ongoing commitment to advocating for environmental justice communities.
Chicago’s Southeast Side has long attracted industrial development and was once one of the largest steel producing regions in the world. However, residents complained about the side effects of pollution from steel mills as early as the 1840s. Raoul’s brief details the decades of industrial waste dumped into the marsh areas and Calumet River as a byproduct of the steel industry, as well as the detrimental health impacts to generations of residents on the Southeast Side of Chicago, which was largely an immigrant community for much of its history.
Although the steel mills have closed, the region continues to face significant environmental challenges. According to Raoul’s brief, the Southeast Side of Chicago is currently home to 250 facilities that are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and is the only industrial corridor in Chicago zoned to store hazardous waste. The brief also highlights that since 2014, the USEPA investigated over 75 companies on the Southeast Side of Chicago for possible air pollution violations.
Raoul’s brief contrasts the industrial landscape with the lack of green space for area residents. The Southeast Side of Chicago and the four neighborhoods that comprise it have been identified as environmental justice communities, the brief explains, in part because of the USEPA’s rankings for pollution indicators, but also because of its demographic makeup and the long history of discrimination experienced by the community. South Chicago, the neighborhood within the Southeast Side of Chicago directly adjacent to the facility, is a formerly redlined community where 70% of the residents are Black and over 20% are Hispanic. Numerous reports, highlighted in the brief, describe the public health burdens experienced within this community, including higher rates of asthma, COPD and lung cancer.
Attorney General Raoul’s Environmental Enforcement Division, which enforces civil environmental laws, has recovered millions of dollars from polluters and required companies to undertake environmental improvement projects in communities impacted by pollution. Raoul encourages residents to report environmental justice and other environmental concerns to his office by emailing ej@ilag.gov.
