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Environmental Justice Win on Chicagos SE Side

Environmental Justice Win on Chicagos SE Side

Environmental Justice Win on Chicagos SE Side

The years-long fight shed light on flaws within the City and States Industrial Permitting Process

Gina Ramirez speaking outside the County Building on Clark Street in Chicago after the announcement that General Iron’s permit was denied

The most intense environmental justice fight of my life, which led to years of advocacy by my neighbors and our alliesincluding a historic month-long hunger strikecentered around asking the city of Chicago to deny a permit.

The fight began in 2018, when a large car-shredding plant proposed moving out of Lincoln Park to make way for the multibillion dollar Lincoln Yards development. This was against the wishes of my working-class community on the city’s Southeast Side. RMG/General Iron was forced to relocate. This started a long-running struggle to stop them joining the many polluters in my neighborhood.

Although it was only one episode of decades of environmental racism in my neighborhood, it exposed the structural issues that encourage polluting industry to accumulate in communities such as mine. In addition to the shortcomings in state and federal environmental laws, Chicago’s zoning laws as well as land-use practices continue deepening segregation and creating sacrifice zones where neighbors subsist on their welfare and health.

Ultimately, the Lightfoot administration and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) denied a permit for RMG-General Iron to operate in our community due to the potential adverse changes in air quality and quality of life that would be caused by operations, and health vulnerabilities in the surrounding communities. My neighbors and me would have used stronger language to describe the injustice that this huge industrial facility was being thrown on an already overburdened community.

We were joined by hundreds and thousands of public health and healthcare professionals, activists, and even Michael Regan, EPA Administrator, who called for an end the classic case of environmental racism. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development advised the city to not proceed with a permit while the civil rights investigation was ongoing.

In spite of four years of dealings with General Iron, there were no protests this time. Instead, there were celebrations. As the Southeast Side celebrates, it continues to advocate for solutions for the structural racism that allowed this fight last for years.

Whats Next

Although were exhausted, we know the battle isnt over. There are larger issues that underlie our fight. These include the city’s history of racism and segregation, which has allowed for communities of color to have a lower quality life than rich white residents for decades.

According to the CDPHs Health Impact Assessment of RMG-General Iron, life expectancy for Southeast Side neighborhoods is two to nearly seven years shorter than in Lincoln Park. The Southeast Side community areas are among the lowest in Chicago for life expectancy, self-rated and cardiac disease, and self health. The CDPH has also identified these areas as having among the lowest child opportunity in the city, based on educational, health and environmental, and social and economic data. This means that heavy industry must be seen as more than a solution to social and economic hardships.

This should not happen to any other community. Neighbors shouldn’t have to disrupt and fight for their lives with the very government agencies charged with protecting our health from polluters. This fight has demonstrated that something is seriously wrong with the state’s industrial permit system.

Our partners and environmental justice organizations will continue to advocate for a necessary overhaul of the system.

The decision of the city confirms our concerns about the company’s history with environmental noncompliance. It also cites disturbingly new data about extremely high levels lead in soil at the proposed location, an issue we have raised for many years.

This underscores the importance for a cumulative impacts ordinance, which environmental justice communities continue to advocate for. This ordinance would stop other General Irons from trying infiltrate already overburdened Black or brown communities.

We have had to fight against manganese contamination and lead, proposed gasification, cement plants, petcoke and facilities like General Iron. If the city adopted an ordinance that addressed the effects of combined pollution on communities like mine that allow industry to move into our homes, our lives would be very different.

The Past Four Years

Even before General Iron threatened to come to the Southeast Side, we had already fought back against several polluters, like facilities that stored mountains of toxic petcoke and neurotoxic manganese. Like other Chicago communities of color, the Southeast Side is overburdened by industry that runs right next to our homes and parks.

Along the way, the Southeast Environmental Task Force, Chicago Environmental Justice Network, the Southeast Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke, UN10 (United Neighbors of the 10th Ward), Bridges/Puentes, People for Community Recovery, GWHS Student Voice Committee, Southeast Side Youth Alliance, Southeast Side Educators for Environmental Justice, and Alliance for the Southeast fought through the zoning and state air permitting processes; tried to strengthen local environmental regulations for metals operations; and supported two civil rights complaints to federal agenciesonly to end up in front of the citys environmental and public health agency arguing yet again that this operation should not be allowed in our community.

We have felt determined and unwavering throughout these four years but also dejected and without hope at times. It was difficult to see the light at end of the tunnel when you look at the city’s history of environmental racism in zoning, land-use policies, and zoning. We are grateful that we can now see the light after all the protests, federal civil rights complaints and letters, as well as the hunger strike.

The people who came together to support this cause are as diverse and varied as they come. They include residents, teachers, doctors, politicians, and young and old. They range from Alderman Byron Sigcho Lopez (who joined the hunger strike) to EPA Administrator Regan (who called on Mayor Lightfoot to address civil rights issues with the proposed operation and the HUD staff and leadership who worked on the communitys civil rights complaint) to the more than 500 doctors and healthcare professionals who wrote letters on our behalf to the mayor and the CDPH.

We couldn’t have done this work without our youth leadership. Many of them spent the summer following high school graduation taking on state and city officials and leading protests. Adelina Avalos from NRDC, Midwest youth ambassador, said that a lot of inequalities are becoming apparent to me as a recent high school grad. Apart from the concern about brain-damaging chemicals in my area, I also worry about what the relocation of this facility will mean to the health of my local community. I also wonder how soon we might be subjected to yet another environmental attack.

I am proud of their efforts and this victory will remind them that they are not limited.

To get to where we are today, my neighbors and I had no choice but to take matters into our own hands. Avalos highlighted an unfortunate lesson that our youth quickly learned. The government agencies that are supposed protect us equally often play with the livelihoods and communities of color. While we may not always be able to trust our government, it is comforting to know that I live in a community where we look after one another and are committed to fighting for a better environment for future generations.

With the incredible support of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus and senators Tammy Duckworth, Dick Durbin, Representative Chuy Garcia, Poor Peoples Campaign and Collaborative for Health Equity Cook County and NRDC, the Sierra Club and Illinois Environmental Council, Climate Reality and United Working Families, Sam Kirk and Sergio Maciel, the victory was hard fought and won by the people of the Southeast Side.

Victory for Beyond the Southeast Side

This was an exceptional fight for NRDC. It was grassroots at the core. It was outside the box and I hope it will lead to historic and deep change in Chicago.

I hope that this victory will not be our only and that clean air will be available to communities throughout the country and city. I hope other decision-makers will learn from the Southeast Side’s experience about the importance of transparency, community engagement, and transparency.

My son has lived half his life fighting General Irons’ relocation. As his mother, my job is to protect him. This accomplishment will change the future of his generation.

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