An environmental dispute in the Southwest Side neighborhood of McKinley Park has loomed large in the community’s response to the pandemic. 

The Illinois EPA will hold a virtual hearing Thursday to determine whether it should issue a permit allowing General Iron to operate on the city's Southeast Side. 

The organization had to cancel its Chicago River Day cleanup due to the coronavirus. Instead of bringing thousands of volunteers together for a one-day event, the new Summer Challenge encourages people to pick up litter in their neighborhoods.

The plume of dust that coated homes in Little Village after the demolition of a smokestack included mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other pollutants, according to a lawsuit filed by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

The industrial history of north suburban Waukegan has created a legacy of environmental issues for residents. We speak with Celeste Flores of Clean Power Lake County and Faith in Place.

The plume of dust that coated homes in Little Village after the botched demolition of a coal plant smokestack did not threaten residents’ health, according to final test results released Monday by the city of Chicago.

Since the late 1980s, residents from Hegewisch, the East Side and nearby neighborhoods have organized as part of the Southeast Environmental Task Force to push for better environmental conditions.

Things were starting to look up in Hegewisch when the pandemic hit. The community spent years trying to recover from a massive loss of manufacturing, and has regularly dealt with pollution from nearby industry. 

We discuss the history of Earth Day and the environmental challenges the planet is facing today with Denis Hayes, the organizer of the very first event in 1970, and local environmental activist Kim Wasserman.

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.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed on Friday to hold Hilco Redevelopment Partners accountable for botching the demolition of the smokestack at the former Crawford Power Plant, sending a plume of dust over six blocks of homes in Little Village.

Lawsuits have now been filed against the developer and other parties involved in the mishandled demolition of a former coal plant in Little Village, which recently left the neighborhood covered in a plume of unknown particles. 

Hilco Redevelopment Partners issues an apology and outlined corrective actions following a demolition that left the Little Village neighborhood covered by a plume of dust over the weekend.

The Little Village community has already been hit disproportionately hard by COVID-19. Now, residents are fuming about the demolition of a smokestack that gave rise to a plume of dust and particulate matter that wafted through the neighborhood.

Chicago is investigating the demolition of a former coal plant in Little Village and halting additional work at the site following an uproar over the smokestack’s implosion, which sent a plume of fine powder all over the neighborhood.

It’s estimated that roughly two billion people around the globe are now under some form of stay-at-home order. This significant slowdown in economic activity has also led to an environmental impact, particularly in the air.