This file photo shows the former site of General Iron in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago. (WTTW News)
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Southside Recycling has long planned a move to the Southwest Side. But last week, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency asked Mayor Lori Lightfoot to conduct an environmental justice assessment in the community before allowing the company to operate.

Over the years, industry has taken a toll on the Southeast Side, harming both the natural environment and the health of residents. (WTTW News)
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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.

Relaxed EPA enforcement is a license to pollute, environmentalists say. (mvpdv0ra / Flickr)

Environmental organizations have petitioned the EPA to establish rules requiring companies to minimally disclose to the public that they’ve stopped monitoring and reporting pollution during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Environmentalists are seething over the EPA temporarily relaxing enforcement rules. (mvpdv0ra / Flickr)

The EPA is relaxing enforcement of “environmental legal obligations” during the coronavirus pandemic, and activists are seething.

An overhead view of Watco's storage terminal at 2926 E. 126th St. in Chicago. (Google)

A Southeast Side company must install air monitors to detect levels of dust emissions from heavy metals processed on-site, according to a letter issued by the city this week.

An overhead view of Watco’s storage terminal in Chicago at 2926 E. 126th St. (Google)

Environmental advocates say a Southeast Side storage company violated city standards for air pollution earlier this year. But the company disagrees, asserting that the state’s more lenient law applies. 

An overhead view of Watco's storage terminal at 2926 E. 126th St. in Chicago. (Google)

A Southeast Side company tipped off regulators to its own violation of city air pollution standards, documents submitted to the city show. 

(Ameren Illinois / Facebook)

State regulators signed off Monday on an energy savings plan that consumer advocates say could cost downstate residents nearly 30 percent in savings on utility bills.

(Ameren Illinois / Facebook)

The Illinois Commerce Commission has until mid-September to rule on a downstate utility provider’s energy efficiency plan, which consumer advocates say would cost residents nearly 30 percent in savings on utility bills and jeopardize 7,000 jobs.

(Ameren Illinois / Facebook)

Residents in central and southern Illinois will pay nearly 30 percent more on utility bills than projected if Ameren is allowed to lower its energy savings target, environmental and consumer advocates said Wednesday.

(Daniel X. O'Neil / Flickr)

Efficiency plans filed by Ameren Illinois fail to comply with the state’s new energy law and could prevent the creation of additional jobs, according to a new report. 

(Jason Gillman / Pixabay)
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Elevated lead levels have been found in hundreds of water fixtures in Illinois’ second largest public school district following an initial round of testing earlier this year.

(Steve Johnson / Flickr)

A new report shows that in 2015, Illinois ranked among the five worst states in terms of largest populations served by water systems with health violations. 

The decadeslong fight to clean up the Chicago River took a step forward last week with the resolution of two lawsuits targeting phosphorous discharge that has polluted waters from Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico.

Petcoke piles with sprinklers at KCBX site on Calumet River, 2014. (Terry Evans / Courtesy of Museum of Contemporary Photography)

For years, petroleum coke – the black, powdery byproduct of tar sands oil refineries – plagued the Southeast Chicago area along the Calumet River. Community and environmental activists protested and eventually influenced legislation regulating how the dusty byproduct is stored locally.