The smoke stack of the Crawford Generating Station, 3501 S. Pulaski, can be seen from just about anywhere in Little Village. Some residents say it sounds like an air raid during its periodic middle-of-the-night ventilations; they expect to see a plane going down.
There is a similar story at the Fisk Generating Station in Pilsen.
The smell is acrid at times. Plumes of smoke rise in to the air depositing black ash onto car doors and window sills.
The two facilities burn coal directly into the atmosphere.
But aside from the more obvious symptoms, it’s the invisible particulate matter released into the air that causes real concern. Generally a term referring to a wide range of particles suspended in the air, particulate matter — in the case of the coal plants — refers to emissions such as mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and soot.
It’s, in part, the approximate 2.8 million pounds of soot jettisoned into the atmosphere, per year, that has given Chicago some of the worst asthma statistics nationwide. The Crawford and Fisk plants, two of Illinois’s six coal plants, are the single largest sources of particulate-forming air pollution in the city.
According to a study by the Harvard School of Public Health, the two plants combined contributed to 41 deaths, 550 emergency room visits and 2,800 asthma attacks each year. Together they put out enough carbon dioxide for every resident of the city to have a share of around two metric tons each.
“When it comes to the pollution in the atmosphere, you can’t really see it, and when you can’t see it you don’t realize how much it affects until it’s too late,” said Ian Viteri, clean power campaign organizer for the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization.
At less than six miles apart the two coal plants together are unique in that they are located in heavily populated residential areas; they are, in fact, the top two nationwide. Originally built in 1903, the Fisk Generating Station is located within 3 miles of approximately 314,000 people; likewise, the Crawford plant, built in 1924, is within 3-miles of nearly 375,000 city residents.
Once heavily populated by Czech and Irish immigrants, both Pilsen and Little Village have since become important entry points for Mexican immigrants. To this day the area is roughly 86 to 96 percent Hispanic, largely lower-income and culturally vibrant.
“This is what we call environmental injustice,” said Dorian Breuer of the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization. “We’re talking about people that are struggling and yet they have one of the highest pollution rates.”
Within a few blocks of the Crawford Generating Plant sit Meyer Steel Drum; a waste disposal site, MRC Polymers and Prima Plastics. This high concentration of toxic-emitting sources—which can be seen in a “toxic tour” offered at request through LVEJO—is locally referred to as the ‘cloud factory’.
It’s the law
Because of their age, the two plants have been ‘grandfathered’ in; and are therefore exempt from most federal regulations requiring generating plants to use cleaner and safer, modern technologies.
In the case of Chicago’s two coal plants, the grandfather clause is used to skirt regulations such as the Clean Air Act, which, among other things, would force the plants to employ scrubbers—large towers that use an aqueous limestone mixture to absorb significant amounts of sulfur dioxide from emissions.
Instead the Crawford and Fisk plants emit freely into the atmosphere.
Midwest Generation, a subsidiary of Edison International, owns six of the state’s 22 coal-generating stations, which, in all contribute to nearly half of Illinois’ electricity.
Ald. Joe Moore (49th) said Midwest Generation is, “treating the plants like an old jalopy.”
The corporation is also being sued.
In July of 2009, five environmental and public health groups announced a Clean Air Act lawsuit against Midwest Generation. A month later the Environmental Protection Agency, along with the Illinois Attorney General filed a similar lawsuit against the corporation.
Though the two coal plants are exempt from many modern restrictions outlined in the Clean Air Act, the EPA has issued a notice against Midwest Generation accusing the company of frequently violating air safety standards.
Opponents of the coal plants hope to force Midwest Generation into compliance with higher air safety restrictions.
“The coal plants are largely operating legally,” said Breuer. “That’s why we have to change the law.”
Clean Power
Regulations that would force both the Crawford and Fisk plants to clean up their act were proposed by Moore last April, a proposal which Midwest Generation, owner of the two plants, has expressed no interest in supporting.
The Chicago Clean Power Ordinance acknowledged that coal-fired power plants have a “devastating impact on public health” and would, in effect, impose significant restrictions on Chicago’s coal plants despite their grandfathered status.
If enacted the Ordinance would impose fines of $1,000 for every pound of mercury over 4 pounds, annually. Likewise, any offender would be fined $1,000 for every extra ton of sulfur dioxide over 500 tons and every extra ton of nitrous oxide over 1,000 tons, annually.
The two combined plants, according to 2004 data obtained by P.E.R.R.O, emit 230 pounds of mercury and nearly 18,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide a year.
Despite the negative health affects suffered by Chicago residents, especially those living in closer proximity to the plants, none of the power generated at Crawford and Fisk is sold explicitly to Illinois companies. Midwest Generation sells its power to the highest bidder, not necessarily to the community which it pollutes through production.
This is more than corporate business strategy; it is also Chicago politics.
The Chicago Clean Power Ordinance is currently logging time in the Rules Committee, chaired by Ald. Richard Mell (33rd), a place widely considered the graveyard for doomed proposals. It will take the support of 26 Alderman to resuscitate the Ordinance, which, at the time of this article, remains 14 short of a resurrection.
According to Moore, the Ordinance is “still very much alive”; Mell, however has yet to show as much optimism.
No Conflict of Interest?
The number of aldermanic supporters of the Chicago Clean Power Ordinance is a scattered group including wards from all over the city, now, announced August 3, with the addition of Pilsen’s own Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd).
“He had a change of heart,” said Moore.
This is an important change, seen by many local environmental organizations as a sign of hope. With the addition of Munoz, more Aldermen are expected to end the blockade and sign on.
The two Aldermen, of the city’s two wards where the coal plants are located, have according to the Illinois Board of Elections, taken a total of approximately $75,000 in campaign contributions from Midwest Generation over the last 9 years — since 2001 Midwest Generation has contributed nearly $1.34 million to various Chicago political campaigns.
Ald. Daniel Solis (25th) whose ward contains Little Village’s Fisk Generating plant and who has yet to lend his support to the Ordinance, according to the Illinois Board of Elections website, has taken nearly $49,000 in campaign contributions from Midwest Generation since 2002, the most recent in the amount being $1,500 in April of this year.
The same month, coincidentally, in which the Ordinance was introduced by Moore.
“There is no conflict of interest,” said Maya Solis, the alderman’s spokesperson and daughter.
According to Kristie Menas, an assistant at Solis’s office in charge of reviewing the Ordinance, the alderman, “does not currently have a position, but is currently doing research (on the issue).”
Though the support of Solis would go a long way toward breaking resistance to the Clean Power Ordinance, the support of Munoz directs a renewed attention to Chicago’s public health.
“The increasing number of Aldermanic support reflects pressure from constituents concerned about their health, the health of their kids and the health of the planet,” said Moore. “Cleaning the plants would be a meaningful impact.”
So, “Where is Alderman Solis?”
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