A stretch of Chicago’s southernmost lakefront long used as a toxic landfill is now one step closer to becoming parkland open to all.

The plan is to transform the former U.S. Steel South Works site into the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park. Officials are calling the campus “history-altering,” but some neighbors want the process to slow down and are raising environmental and displacement concerns.

The mayor came under fire by some alderpeople for not living up to her campaign promise to re-establish a city Department of Environment. 

A 20-year extension of the dump, operated by the Army Corps of Engineers to hold toxic sludge dredged from Lake Michigan, is still under review. The dump was supposed to be retired in 2022 and turned over to the Chicago Park District for redevelopment.

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.