People V. Environmental Racism.

Chicago’s southeast side community has strong views on environmental health due to a history of being the City of Chicago’s dumping ground. The newest injustice: Reserve Management Group is slated to bring the highly controversial 100-year-old General Iron shredding facility from Lincoln Park to the south east side community in 2021. Deep in the fight to stop this are community activists and organizations like the Alliance of the South East, struggling to be heard and have a seat at the decision-making table. This episode examines the actions and proposed solutions at the heart of grassroots activism.

Transcript

Intro Music: [00:00:00] Change Agents. 

Narrator - Judith McCray: The stage is set for a showdown when a metal recycling company with powerful allies tries to move to a working class community of color on Chicago's southeast side. A community fed up being the city's toxic dumping ground and unwilling to give another inch on their health and safety.

Here's journalist Bia Medios and activist Julia Hunter. with people versus environmental racism. 

News clip: Explosion this morning sent an incredible boom and shake throughout Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. 

It caused a shutter to the earth. People reported their china and their dishes were rattling in their cabinets.

The force of the explosion sent a fireball and a mushroom cloud into the air. 

Bia Medios: [00:01:00] That's Alderman Brian Hopkins of Chicago's 2nd Ward in May of 2020. He's on the news describing an explosion at General Irons, a metal recycling facility near his home. He and the Northside residents that he represents have been fighting the facility since he took office five years ago.

Remarkably, this is the second explosion at the facility since he took office.

Two years earlier, Hopkins thought victory was within reach for the Lincoln Park residents. 

News clip: General Iron is being sold to another Chicago recycler called RMG. It will follow the fate of Finkel Steel and move to the south side, near 116th and Burley, along the Calumet River. 

Bia Medios: In July of 2018, General Iron partnered with Reserve Management Group and a plan was made to move the shredder from the mostly white, affluent Lincoln Park to the city's 10th ward, a working class community made up of the predominantly black and brown neighborhoods of South Chicago, Calumet Heights, South Deering, [00:02:00] Eastside, and Hedgewich.

The residents here have been environmentally burdened for decades, their homes surrounded by nearly 70 toxic industries dumping pollutants into their backyards. Now, General Iron was planning to join the list, and all that stands in its way is three permits and a community who refuses to lay down. 

Protest chants: Stop General Iron! Stop General Iron! Stop General Iron! Stop General Iron! Stop General Iron! Stop General Iron! Stop General Iron! Stop General Iron! Stop General Iron! Stop General Iron! Stop General Iron! Stop General Iron! 

Bia Medios: So maybe this is just where you come in?

Julia Hunter: I guess (laughter) I totally don't know what I'm doing on this at all.

Bia Medios: Girl, this is the creative pro-- 

Julia Hunter: we just don't want General Iron in our location. Boom. 

Bia Medios: That's Julia Hunter, lifelong resident of South Shore, a neighborhood bordering the 10th Ward, an area she cares very deeply about. Julia's love of the 10th Ward has moved her to join its residents fighting for the spiritual, physical, and mental soul of the community.

Ten years ago, she founded a website called Work Together for Peace, which documents community activism. With a big [00:03:00] smile and infectious laugh, she tends to downplay her work. 

Julia Hunter: I just show up, that's it, with a camera, a couple of them, and a recorder. There you go. 

Bia Medios: That you do for free. That I do for free, yeah, I do volunteer this time.

Julia Hunter: Yes, I do. To me, knowledge is power at the end of the day, and that's the reason why I had created, one of the main reasons of creating a website is to make people more aware of what's going on around them in their own community, not just what's going on somewhere else. 

Bia Medios: She takes her Canon 70D camera and acts as a kind of community documentarian.

She thinks of her website as part information hub, part narrative challenger, and covers everything from the local protests that took place after Chicago's summer of unrest in June to Black Lives Matter marches.[00:04:00] 

Protest Speaker: Don't fall into the trap that's being set for us. Love is the most powerful force on this planet. Let's use it now to heal and stand together. 

Julia Hunter: You know, the work is always emotional. I'm always following incidents where the community is standing up for their rights. Just like now with General Iron. But I want to leave that energy that I think most people in the community is feeling right now.

I'm asking for help. I'm dying for help. I need help. I told you what I wanted. You seem like you're not listening to me. 

Bia Medios: Freedom of speech is the bedrock of American democracy. But what happens when nobody's listening? The Tenth Ward has been fighting for the health of their community for decades. And the response? A deafening silence. 

News clip: [00:05:00] 

Bia Medios: I mean, it's, it seems like this will be such a simple concept. 

Julia Hunter: You would like to think that people act like pollution got this weird boundaries or something, but it does not. Water and air goes everywhere. 

News clip: In Chicago, former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot has been elected the next mayor. When Mayor Rahm Emanuel left office in April of 2019, community activists like Julia hoped that the city's new leadership would be more responsive to the needs of Chicago's black and brown communities.

Bia Medios: When Lightfoot took office, it certainly felt like a new sheriff was in town. Within her first few months in office, city health inspectors ticketed General Irons for air quality violations five times. Something that had only happened once under Rahm Emanuel. But soon, Julia began to question the new mayor's motives.

News clip: Last week, the Lightfoot administration finalized a deal [00:06:00] long in the works for General Iron to close up shop by the end of next year.

Bia Medios: It was clear Mayor Lightfoot was out to protect the quality of life in some Chicago neighborhoods. She was paving the way for General Irons to make a hasty exit out of Lincoln Park and into the city's Southeast side. Explode. 

Julia Hunter: Fast tracking. I don't get why she did that. I said, yeah, we did talk about that. I just don't get that. How I feel about that. I'm like, why would you rush and do that? And you know people have been protesting against this because now you feel like you've totally been ignored.

Bia Medios: On its surface, it would be difficult to find a story that better illustrates the state of environmental racism in America. The city moves a toxic industry from a predominantly white affluent neighborhood into a low income Latinx community. But when you look below the surface, the contrast is even sharper.

The rush to get General Iron out of Lincoln Park runs deeper than health concerns. 

News clip: It's the largest development the city of Chicago has considered in decades. The north side's 6 billion, 52 acre...

Bia Medios: The metal scrapper is being moved to make way [00:07:00] for a billion dollar land development deal called Lincoln Yards.

The type of economic investment that communities in the 10th Ward have been demanding for years. 

Peggy Salazar: We've never felt like we could trust them, and that's the sad reality. 

Bia Medios: That's Peggy Salazar of Southeast Environmental Task Force. Peggy has been fighting for a cleaner environment in the 10th Ward for more than 30 years.

Peggy Salazar: So we have the sewage treatment plant here. We have the garbage dumps here. We have the industry that smells and stinks and emits pollution into the air here. And we're saying, you know what, we're tired of it. We don't want any more of this stuff, but yet they keep wanting to send us more and more and more, just in different forms.

Bia Medios: Julie and I go to the storefront office of Southeast Environmental Task Force on 133rd and Baltimore to speak with Peggy. 

Peggy Salazar: So we oppose the coal gasification plant, and we opposed it not because of the gasification. Because it meant piles of coal and pet coke in our neighborhood, [00:08:00] and we didn't want any more of that stuff, and that's why we opposed it.

Okay? But see, here's the sad reality. So we opposed it, and we got pet coke anyway. So, once again, it's like the community who knows what's good for them, We don't have a voice. So we have to do these battles one by one by one as they keep throwing stuff at us.

Bia Medios: Remember we said at the top of the show that in order for General Iron's new owner, RMG, to relocate the scrapping plant in the southeast side, they would need three permits. Well, in May of 2020, the first of the three, a construction permit, would be decided by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

Informational Hearing with Illinois EPA: This is not a contested case hearing. Rather, this is an informational hearing in the matter. permit for a scrap metal recycling plant. 

Bia Medios: Notice what was said there. This is not a contested hearing. In other words, this hearing does not determine the outcome of the permitting process. 

Informational Hearing with Illinois EPA: That the application [00:09:00] meets the standards for issuance, we will fully consider and respond to all significant public comments and may make changes to the permit based upon the comments.

Bia Medios: The decision had already been made without input from those who would suffer the consequences. Notice again, what they said, quote, we will fully consider and respond to all significant public comments and may make changes. In other words, our minds are made up. Contested case hearing or not, community members were going to state their case.

Listen to how Lauren Compton describes what it's like living next to General Irons right now. 

Lauren Compton: As a current neighbor to General Iron, I implore you to not grant this serial polluter the opportunity to poison and endanger yet another Chicago community. For at least 20 years, numerous residents have filed complaints ranging from noxious smells and explosions to fluff littering streets.

Hours of operations are not adhered to, workers [00:10:00] walk our streets in gas masks picking up fugitives 

Rachel Vance: like stilt matters EPA with regulations, but they blanketed our neighborhood 

Bia Medios: This is Rachel Vance painfully describing the environmental health burden already faced by those living in the 10th Ward. 

Rachel Vance: I got my letter in October, 2018, which was four years after we purchased our dream home. And it says that I have 12 times the amount of lead in my yard. Then that is removal management level. The removal management level is 400 milligrams per kilogram. My yard has 4, 800. milligrams per kilogram. And they said that they would love to help, but they don't know which one of the dozens of companies around here was responsible for destroying my land.

Bia Medios: Imagine these types of testimonies on repeat, [00:11:00] 21 in all, with scarcely a voice heard in support of RMG. The hearings ended and a decision is promised within weeks. And then just four days later,

News clip: the explosion rattled homes and nerves can't operate safely during a pandemic when they know they're under scrutiny by state, federal and local officials. They simply are incapable of operating safely.

Bia Medios: The blast confirms every fear the 10th Ward has about the recycling facility. 

Julia Hunter: And the first thing I thought about when I heard it on the news was the hearing.

I said, wow, what a time. Maybe with this explosion, they'll pay attention to the hearing more. So what the people said on the hearing, now they won't actually give them this permit. Why would we, the community, want that to come over to the southeast side, if you're having this problem already in Lincoln Park?

That's what my thought was. So I kind of thinking, okay, hopeful. I'm feeling hopeful. I'm thinking, okay, [00:12:00] but it's like, yeah, this thing either need to be closed down, but it surely don't need to come over to the southeast side. 

Bia Medios: Yet on June 25th, the Illinois EPA approved the General Iron construction permit, leaving Julia and so many like her to wonder what does it take to warrant protection from the Environmental Protection Agency?

As if in answer, the EPA repeatedly said they could not deny permits based on past violations, negative community feedback, past events like the May explosion, or a community's pre existing pollution burden. Leaving Southeast Side residents to ask, then what exactly can you deny permits for? 

Amalia Niero Gomez: We recognize that they have had violations with us.

We recognize That they have a history of not following the plans to make sure that they're in compliance. However, during the permitting process, we can't take a look at any of that. 

Bia Medios: Julia and I need answers. So we Amalia Niero Gomez, Executive Director of Alliance of the Southeast. ASE's mission is [00:13:00] to develop grassroots leaders who identify issues, meet with decision makers, and get the changes they actually want to see in their neighborhoods.

Amalia Niero Gomez: You can't acknowledge all of those things and still say, Yes, it's okay to move unless you do not think that where it's moving to that the people are, um, good enough to live in a clean, healthy, safe environment. 

Bia Medios: Niero Gomez sees the permit hearing held by the EPA as window dressing designed to squash criticisms that the community isn't involved in the decision making process.

Amalia Niero Gomez: A community voice is not coming in with a plan presenting it to somebody or the community and the community having input or, you know, just to tweak it. I think real community voice means going out and having listening sessions, really listening to what the priorities are and then people having decision making power.

Bia Medios: [00:14:00] a seat at the table. That has been the demand at every turn of the General Irons saga, a chance for Southeast side residents to have a say in determining their standard of living. 

News clip: Oscar Sanchez is a nearby resident and was among those who offered more than 300 statements to Illinois EPA during the public comment period.

Oscar Sanchez: I feel like my voice has been silenced. I feel that this is a slap to my face. This is a slap to our community. I feel that the IAPA has disregarded all our concerns. 

News clip: Opponents note an incident last month.

Bia Medios: Those are protesters gathered outside the home of 10th Ward Alderwoman Sue Garza, literally taking the fight to her front door after the permit was granted. 

News clip: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is out with a new air quality plan, an agenda promising to clean up the air, [00:15:00] backed by new data, with a focus on equity for the city's neighborhoods.

But does it go far enough? 

Bia Medios: A month later, on July 27, the city comes out with its new air quality plan. The mayor intends the plan to be a call to action addressing the city's environmental inequities. But in light of what's happening with General Irons and the findings in the city's air quality study, it all rings pretty hollow.

Amalia Niero Gomez: And then this is the map of air pollutants in the city and actually in Cook County. The biggest circle of where the most air pollution is and the whole city is on the southeast side. So, Very clearly, we're already environmentally um, overburdened. Um, these are the asthma and cancer rates and where General Iron will be moving is completely red, meaning high chronic diseases.

So, this is the, the legacy and when we talk about environmental racism, it's the, the policies that keep pushing um, toxic development into [00:16:00] um, African American and Latino communities.

Bia Medios: They've presented their case plainly on every level. through official channels and in the streets. And their message has been clear. Not one more toxic polluter in our backyard. But at every turn, the city's response has been equally clear. You have no say in this matter. And when decision time came on General Iron's second permit, the city stayed true to form and granted the scrapper a pollution control permit.

Worse, after promising to make the process transparent, the permit was approved behind closed doors without so much as a press release. That's two permits down and only one more to go before General Iron can open for business. 

News clip: Federal government is investigating a complaint that Chicago zoning policies are racist.

Bia Medios: Having exhausted all other [00:17:00] avenues, it was time to change strategies. It was time to lawyer up. 

News clip: That complaint is centered around the scrap shredder General Iron. And activists say the city violated federal law by allowing the company to move. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is planning to investigate those complaints.

Bia Medios: In a span of a few months, three major legal actions are brought against the city and state The strategy is tried and true. Go after the purse strings. 

News clip: Federal government is investigating a complaint that Chicago's zoning policies are racist. That complaint is centered around 

Bia Medios: In late October, three Southeast community groups filed a complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, claiming that Chicago was violating the Fair Housing Act.

The city receives extensive funding from HUD, and in order to continue receiving those funds, they must abide by the FHA. 

News clip: They have proven That they are a danger and a hazard to their own employees [00:18:00] and to whichever neighborhood. They operated. 

Rich Martinez is one of the plaintiffs who have filed for a temporary restraining order.

They claim General Iron's owners and lobbyists have donated heavily to key aldermen in order to gain a permit to open on the south side. 

Bia Medios: Later that month, the Reverend Roosevelt Watkins III and the Reverend Richard Martinez filed suit in the U. S. District Court requesting an injunction halting the final permit.

Their grounds? Reopening the recycling plant on the southeast side violates the civil rights of residents. And in January 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a second federal investigation into the General Iron move. Officials will now investigate whether the IEPA discriminated against the predominantly Latino and African American community in Southeast Chicago by issuing the permit.

There are signs that the lawsuits are having impact. The Office of Housing and Urban Development sent a letter to the city [00:19:00] asking Mayor Lori Lightfoot to hold off on issuing a final operating permit for General Iron. HUD found the claims that the relocation of General Iron will cause serious irreparable injury

News clip: People protesting a plan to move the metal shredding operations of General Iron to the southeast side have ramped up their fight. They're staging a hunger strike, saying they will forego 

Bia Medios: In February, one more appeal to the city's conscience to hear the will of its citizens. 

News clip: Our backs are already up against the wall.

I am willing to risk my life for my community. 

Bia Medios: Three environmental rights activists, Chuck Stark, a science teacher at George Washington High School, Oscar Sanchez, co founder of Southeast Side Youth Coalition, and Brianna Bertacci, a member of United Neighbors of the Tenth Ward, started fasting. As of this recording, they've been fasting for three weeks, bringing even more attention to their demands that the city refuse RMG [00:20:00] the final permit needed to open in the Tenth Ward.

News clip: It's discouraging that it had to get to this point, that a hunger strike is where we're at currently. But we haven't heard anything aside from Mayor Lightfoot acknowledging that our opposition has been heard. If you could say something to her directly, if she's watching, what would you say? 

That we want this permit denied.

We're not settling for anything less. We're sick of this neighborhood being the dumping ground for the city. If it wasn't good enough for Lincoln Park, why is it even being considered in this neighborhood?