Chicago could lose of hundreds of millions of dollars in grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development if it does not resolve federal officials’ concerns over a metal shredding and recycling operation.
Southeast Side
Officials with the Chicago Department of Public Health rejected the permit because of the “potential adverse changes in air quality and quality of life that would be caused by operations, and health vulnerabilities in the surrounding communities.”
City officials said they would announce no later than Sunday whether they will issue the final permit Southside Recycling needs to start operations.
The parent company of a now-shuttered metal recycler on the North Side will pay a fine as part of an agreement to resolve charges that the firm’s operation violated the Clean Air Act, Environmental Protection Agency officials announced Wednesday.
The parent company of General Iron, which wants to operate a metal shredding and recycling operation on Chicago’s Southeast Side, failed to notify city officials that a vacant building collapsed on the site of the proposed facility, officials said Thursday.
The city is conducting additional environmental studies after the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said the proposal raises “significant civil rights concerns.”
A federal judge will not force the city to permit Reserve Management Group, the parent company of General Iron, to operate a metal shredding and recycling operation on Chicago’s Southeast Side.
City officials agreed Friday to conduct an environmental justice assessment of the proposed shredding operation before issuing the final permit the facility needs to start operating.
In recent months, the tension between industry and community has escalated as protests erupted against metal scrapper General Iron’s proposed relocation to the Southeast Side. And while activists say the area has been overburdened with industry, the need for jobs with low barriers to entry is still high.
The Chicago Department of Public Health has asked Reserve Management Group to resubmit its application to operate Southside Recycling at 11600 S. Burley Ave. with a significant amount of additional information.
Opponents of a permit application for a metal shredding facility on the Southeast Side question whether public comments will fall on deaf ears.
General Iron’s parent company has applied for its final permit to operate its metal-shredding operation on the Southeast Side, but federal officials have asked the city to hold off on making a decision.
After being hit with a dozen citations from city inspectors in the past year, General Iron has agreed to pay a penalty. Meanwhile, environmental activists continue their fight to block the scrap metal recycler’s move.
Community organizers on Chicago’s Southeast Side are marshaling their forces and looking for solutions to address what they see as yet another environmental threat to their already beleaguered neighborhood.
Over the objections of environmental activists, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday issued a construction permit to General Iron, allowing the company to move its metal-shredding operation from Lincoln Park to the Southeast Side.
A 67-acre Southeast Side site served as a dumping ground for Republic Steel for nearly 30 years. Inspection records show the property is contaminated with lead, cyanide, mercury and other potentially harmful pollutants.
