Illinois EPA opposes proposed toxic waste dump expansion on Southeast Side lakefront
In a letter filed in federal court, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency said the proposed expansion of a toxic waste dump on the Southeast Side would go against state law. It's the latest development in a lengthy battle over the future of a 45-acre disposal site on the Lake Michigan shoreline.
'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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Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Chilled by fear: ICE raids cast a pall over Orange County households, businesses
Good morning. It's Wednesday, June 25. I'm Carol Cormaci, bringing you this week's TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events from around the county. The stories about Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Orange County keep coming. There are reports of restaurants and other businesses struggling, either due to having decimated staffs or a precipitous drop in customers — including Latino American citizens who are afraid to set foot outside their homes lest they be whisked into vans by masked men and taken to a detention center. If one of the goals of the Department of Homeland Security with the local ICE operation tactics is to sow fear, that mission has been accomplished, based on what TimesOC's Gabriel San Román reported from a day out in the field when he interviewed vendors at Anaheim Indoor Marketplace, day laborers on the street and a restaurateur in Santa Ana. At the marketplace, where many stands have been shuttered and remaining operators are worried they won't be able to pay rent, one vendor who asked not to be identified despite the fact they are a U.S. citizen, acknowledged the somber mood hovering in the air and the dearth of customers. 'Hopefully, things will get better soon,' the vendor told the reporter. 'But right now, it seems like [ICE] is approaching anyone who is Latino.' One incident that came to our attention last week is the experience of a Newport Beach attorney with a 'very American name,' as she said, who was walking in an O.C. park when she was detained by ICE agents, handcuffed and transported to a processing center. 'There was no warning, no rhyme or reason...,' the attorney told Douglas Sanders of the Daily Journal, who broke the story. '...Their goal was to get as many people as they could into their vans and go. Act fast, ask questions after the fact, and let the consequences be damned.' She said that about an hour and a half after she was hustled to the center she was told she could leave. She had to find her own way home, though. The L.A. Times reported that Narciso Barranco, an immigrant whose son Alejandro says had recently applied to become a U.S. citizen, was working outside of a Santa Ana IHOP on Saturday when he was violently detained by several masked federal agents. The encounter was documented on a video that went viral showing Barranco being taken down, pinned and punched over and over again by the agents after he'd tried unsuccessfully to run away from them. 'The younger Barranco told The Times on Sunday that his father was pepper sprayed and beaten, and that his shoulder was dislocated,' the paper reported. 'After speaking with him Sunday at about 6 p.m., Barranco said his father had not received medical treatment, food or water after more than 24 hours in a detention facility in Los Angeles.' There are, of course, two sides to the story. Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin of the Department of Homeland Security, alleged in a statement to The Times on Monday that the 48-year-old Barranco, whom she described as an 'illegal alien,' had 'swung a weed whacker directly at an agent's face and refused to comply with the agents' commands or requests to identify himself.' She also said the report of the dislocated shoulder was false. Alejandro Barranco, 25, is a veteran of the U.S. Marines and his two younger brothers, Emanuel and José Luis Barranco, are active-duty members. He said Marines who have been deployed to protect federal property and ICE personnel probably have mixed feelings about the state of affairs, according to The Times. 'I know they love their country, they want to serve their country, but I'm also sure that they love their parents and they love their family members who are undocumented. I'm pretty sure we're all pushing for the same thing,' he said, 'which is a change in our system.' • The former NFL kicker who in February was arrested for his act of civil disobedience during a Huntington Beach City Council meeting has decided he'll run for office. Activist Chris Kluwe, a Democrat, said last week he plans to campaign in the 2026 elections against current Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark, one of the 'MAGA-nificent 7' (in Tony Strickland's words) members of the H.B. City Council, to represent Assembly District 72. The district includes the cities of Aliso Viejo, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Newport Beach and Seal Beach. • One of Van Der Mark's colleagues on the Huntington Beach City Council, Mayor Pat Burns, muttered an obscene epithet about a woman addressing the council during a meeting last week that was caught on a live microphone, generating an outcry. You can read about his latest gaffe and what led up to it in this Daily Pilot story. • Given the unpredictable state of local and national economy, the Costa Mesa City Council last week agreed with four employee unions to a one-year contract, rather than a longer term, that will provide a total of $3.5 million in salary and benefit increases to city employees. • Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing: At Home, a home goods retailer based in Texas that operates 260 stores in 40 states is shuttering several SoCal locations, including stores on El Camino Real in Tustin and on Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa as it tries to recover from a slowdown in sales and the effects of inflation and tariffs. Both Orange County locations are advertising a store closing sale on their websites. • Kwong 'Tony' Chun Sit, 53, an Irvine animal trainer, was arrested last Thursday night on suspicion of animal cruelty and destruction of evidence in connection with the death of 11 dogs belonging to his clients, including nine whose bodies were recovered by police. He and his co-defendant, Tingfeng Liu, 23, of Vista, were arraigned Monday. Both pleaded not guilty. • A large crowd surrounded and allegedly assaulted Santa Ana police officers who were trying to make an arrest of a man for drinking in public at around 2 a.m. Sunday. When the dust settled, five people were arrested and three officers were injured with cuts and abrasions, City News Service reported. The incident occurred on the 300 block of West Third Street, according to police. • Artist and filmmaker Daniel Winn spent more than a year creating two large bronze and stainless steel sculptures that were stolen from an Anaheim Hills warehouse the weekend of June 14-15 and later recovered from a trailer parked on an Anaheim driveway last Friday, The Times reports. The sculptures, 'Icarus Within' and 'Quantum Mechanics: Homme,' are valued at a combined $2.1 million and there was concern the thief (or thieves) might sell them for scrap. Anaheim police say the case is still under investigation. Four players from Newport Harbor High, past and present, helped the Team USA Junior National team earn a silver medal at the World Aquatics Under-20 World Championships in Croatia over the weekend. Team USA fell to Spain, 14-11, in the gold medal match on Saturday. Contributors for the U.S. included 2023 Sailors graduate Ben Liechty and 2024 alumnus Peter Castillo, both now at UCLA. Gavin Appeldorn, a 2024 graduate now at Princeton, and incoming Sailors senior Connor Ohl also contributed for Team USA. Ohl recently committed to Stanford. Costa Mesa native Landon Akerstrom, a Mater Dei graduate who now plays for UC San Diego, also helped the cause. • In other water polo news, the Fischer sisters of Laguna Beach, Makenzie and Aria, were feted Friday in a USA water polo national team retirement ceremony. The team's coach, Adam Krikorian, told the Daily Pilot that Makenzie Fischer, who was a water polo standout at Laguna Beach High as well as Stanford, 'could literally be the best player in the world.' Her younger sister, Aria, played on three CIF championship teams at Laguna Beach and the Stanford team that captured three NCAA titles. Their dad, Erich Fischer, who still coaches at Laguna Beach, was a two-time national champion in water polo at Stanford and an Olympian in 1992. • The Anaheim Ducks, who have not made it to the NHL playoffs for seven years, traded center Trevor Zegras to the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday for forward Ryan Poehling and the 45th overall pick in the upcoming draft, along with a fourth-round pick next season, the L.A. Times reports. • Petey the Surf Dog, a 6-year-old Westie, won the small dog competition at the 28th annual Purina Pure Plan Incredible Dog Challenge Western Regionals for the second straight year on Friday in Huntington Beach. Koa, an 11-year-old Labrador from Carlsbad, was also a repeat winner in the large dog competition at the event. • The life of the late Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson, who died June 11 at 82, was celebrated Saturday in Huntington Beach, where a paddle out ceremony was held in his memory. Dean Torrence of the surf -rock duo Jan and Dean was a featured speaker. He told the crowd that when he asked Wilson in 1963 if he could write a song for their use, he learned Wilson was working on two pieces that were contenders for the Beach Boys' next single, but they both sounded similar so he was willing to part with one. The songs were 'Surfin' U.S.A' and 'Surf City' and Wilson told Torrence he was leaning toward keeping 'Surfin' U.S.A' 'He said 'If you want the other song, you can finish it, I don't care,' so we took the song,' Torrence recalled. Eight weeks later, he said, 'Surf City' was the No. 1 song in the U.S. • O.C. resident Christine Mulholland has started a new podcast called 'What's Going On?' that seeks to expand environmental consciousness. The Daily Pilot caught up with Mulholland for this feature story about the entrepreneur, who said she can trace her interest in nature back to when she was 5 and convinced the neighbhood kids to help her round up earthworms that had been displaced by rains and put them back into the turf where they belonged. Mulholland in 2012 co-founded an environmental and wildlife conservation nonprofit called Generation Awakening. In 2018, she put on a 5K 'Race Against Extinction' locally that raised more than $40,000 to protect endangered species and their habitats. • The heroic efforts 100 years ago this month by famed Hawaiian swimmer and surfer Duke Kahanamoku and others who saved several lives when a fishing boat was toppled by waves in Corona del Mar were celebrated by Sherman Library & Gardens during a special fundraiser toward creating a bronze plaque commemorating the 'Great Rescue' of June 14, 1925. • Works by Korean American artist Wendy Park are showcased in a solo exhibition 'Of Our Own' now through through July 19 at Various Small Fires OC gallery, 119 N. Prospect Ave., Tustin. It's open to the public Wednesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. • This is the month of the annual Wurst Fest at Old World Biergarten in Huntington Beach, where guests can enjoy bratwurst, soft pretzels, sauerkraut and German beers this Saturday and Sunday. Check out this list of exotic sausages also offered while supplies last: smoked alligator andouille, smoked elk sausage with bacon and cheddar, smoked venison sausage with port wine and potato, duck and bacon sausage with jalapeño pepper, rattlesnake and rabbit with jalapeño pepper, rabbit and pork with leeks and carrots, and venison sausage with merlot blueberries. Saturday's hours are noon to 10 p.m., Sunday from noon to 7 p.m. • Laguna Beach's storied Sawdust Art Festival opens this Friday and runs through Aug. 31. Now in its 59th year, the event will feature the works of more than 185 artists, live music and festival fun, according to organizers. There are special nights when Orange County residents with valid ID can enter at no charge. Visit the festival website to learn when residents of your city can take advantage of the offer. Scroll down the page to the 'Plan Your Visit' section to locate the schedule of dates and cities. Until next Wednesday,Carol We appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Is Berkeley finally ready to atone for its single-family housing sins?
In 1914, a developer of Berkeley's wealthy neighborhoods invented single-family zoning for the explicit purpose of excluding non-wealthy families. The idea took off nationwide, leading to apartment bans and car-centric suburban sprawl. By the 1970s, Berkeley, whose population was swelling with families living in new apartments, went further, freezing the construction of new housing citywide on the basis that halting population growth was pro-environment. Berkeley's Black population, which had been growing until 1970, immediately began to shrink as housing options dried up and families were pushed out due to rising costs. By 1980, homelessness had become a severe issue in Berkeley. Meanwhile, families that would've otherwise lived in low-carbon, car-lite homes in Berkeley were forced to the suburbs, destroying thousands of acres of open space and farmland for new suburbs and freeways in hot climates with carbon-intensive homes. Berkeley didn't begin to address the consequences of its errors until the 2000s by allowing high-density apartments that helped lower rents. But most of the city's residential zones remain under a freeze today. And Berkeley is still not building any housing for middle-class families with children. Most residential neighborhoods are only available to the rich — those who can afford $1.6 million homes or low-density apartments built generations ago that cannot be built today. On Thursday, Berkeley's City Council is poised to rectify this regrettable history by voting on the final draft of its 'Middle Housing' ordinance. The proposed rezoning would allow the construction of more low-density, multifamily homes. In getting to this place, many compromises were made to reduce the number of homes that can be built under the ordinance. Fire zones are exempted. Density limits — 5 to 7 homes on a typical 5,000 square foot lot — were added. Three-story height limits were kept in place, as well as a two-story maximum in the rear of a property for privacy. A requirement that 40% of a lot be kept as open space was added. The council also passed the strongest tenant protections of almost any city in the United States. Census data shows that Berkeley needs this ordinance if it wants to build its middle class. Households in homes of 2 to 4 units and 5 to 19 units, for example, make an average of $97,139 and $59,689, respectively. Families in single-family homes have a median income of $193,233. Berkeley's median household income, meanwhile, is $108,000, which is not enough to be able to afford the purchase of a $1.5 million single-family house. As gentrification has gutted Black neighborhoods in the city, the only areas where the Black population is growing are downtown — the same place where the city is building housing. As a middle-income Black renter, my 10-home, three-story apartment is the only reason I can live in North Berkeley, and the same is true for the young families with school children who live in my building's two-bedroom units. The new plan will also help older homeowners. Apartment bans force senior homeowners on fixed incomes to either cash out when a bill is due or refinance their mortgage. But my grandfather in Oakland was able to convert his house into a duplex and gain income from it instead of selling — building intergenerational wealth in an area where that possibility had long been redlined away. Berkeley's plan is superior to the strategy of adding accessory dwelling units to the back of residential lots. While better than nothing, replacing backyards and gardens with housing units has its downside. Middle housing preserves more open space (40% or more of a lot in the ordinance) and backyard privacy by building up instead of filling the lot. Climate research shows that multifamily homes have a lower carbon footprint than single-family homes, even in Berkeley. Climate scientists Daniel Kammen, a Nobel Prize winner, and Charlie Koven, lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report to the United Nations, have not only endorsed Berkeley's Middle Housing plan but also argue that the City Council should raise the density limit to achieve climate goals. For the past six years, every City Council member and mayor — incumbent or newcomer — who supported the Middle Housing plan on their platforms handily defeated anti-housing challengers. But while the council unanimously supports the ordinance, final density decisions will still be up for debate on Thursday. Whatever allowable dwelling units per acre the council decides on, all neighborhoods, regardless of racial or income demographics, should have the same density limit. That's the crucial point: to abolish exclusionary zoning. Many Berkeley neighborhoods already have housing with 2 to 10 units, many of which don't look dissimilar from single-family houses. Most people don't care about density; they care about whether the buildings exceed the height limit of typical neighborhood residences and are well landscaped. Architects should respect what this zoning intends and build homes that add density but complement a district's architecture and garden landscaping. By passing the Middle Housing ordinance on Thursday, Berkeley can show America that beautiful density for non-rich families, which is already the norm in Europe, is better than the suburban sprawl that the city popularized over a century ago. Darrell Owens is a data analyst at Terner Labs and a planning commissioner for the city of Berkeley. His opinion does not represent Terner Labs, the University of California or the Berkeley Planning Commission.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
State: Holyoke schools on track for July 1 exit from commonwealth oversight
HOLYOKE — Holyoke Public Schools will return to local control on July 1, the state announced tonight. The announcement comes after 10 years state oversight, called receivership, for chronic underperformance. The state made a provisional determination in October that the schools would be ready to re-helm the district if the School Committee completed a plan for rebuilding and sustaining the schools. 'Holyoke has worked hard to regain local control of its schools, and this is a great moment for the city, students, educators and families,' said Gov. Maura Healey in a statement. Education Secretary Patrick A. Tutwiler, who also serves as interim commissioner, said, 'It is time for local officials to take the lead,' It's a proud day for Holyoke, said Holyoke Mayor Joshua A. Garcia, who also chairs the School Committee, in the statement. The commonwealth noted a number of district achievements, including: • an increase in the district's four-year cohort graduation rate from 60.2% in 2014 to 77.1% in 2024, which includes a 32-point gain for English learners and a 31-point gain for students with disabilities over the same time period; • a reduction of the out-of-school suspension rate from 20% in 2013-14 to 9.8% in 2023-24; • an increase in the percentage of students in grades 11 and 12 completing advanced coursework from 39.5% in 2018 to 57% in 2024; • and a gap-narrowing increase in the percentage of Hispanic/Latino students in grades 11 and 12 completing advanced coursework, from 32.2% in 2018 to 54.6% in 2024. 'The Holyoke School Committee and Local Control Subcommittee worked very hard to get to this day, but we know our work is just beginning,' said Yadilette Rivera Colon, vice chair of the School Committee, in the statement. The district has about 4,800 students in preschool through grade 12 and had been in receivership since 2015. Receiver Anthony Soto has led the district since 2021. Earlier this year, the School Committee named him superintendent for the 2025-26 school year, overseeing the transition. The state will continue to support and monitor the district's progress, which has to meet exit assurances that Tutwiler issued April 28, the state said. Exit assurances include professional development for teachers; the creation and use of an early literacy plan; two-way communication with families, including non-English speakers; policies related to teaching and learning time; and educator compensation and evaluation. Visit the Holyoke Public Schools website for more. Read the original article on MassLive.
