The grassroots organization provided project updates and discussed environmentally-friendly initiatives and redevelopment ideas at a public meeting Wednesday.
“We’ve had several really great successes in the last couple years,
Fisk closed down, H. Kramer was forced to clean up their pollution,
these kind of things don’t happen without community pressure,” said
Jerry Mead-Lucero, organizer for PERRO.
“Change requires community pressure, and that’s why it’s so important we
keep informing the residents and keep the community involved so we can make good
things happen.”
There are considerable problems with air and land pollution in
Chicago’s Southwest neighborhoods of Pilsen and Little Village and, at a
meeting with community residents last night, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) committed to ongoing cleanup efforts.
Approximately 50 residents at Walsh Elementary School listened Tuesday night as the EPA presented the community with four plans for pollution reduction in their neighborhood.
Edison Mission Energy, the parent of Illinois energy company Midwest Generation, owes $97 million in interest on bonds and may file for bankruptcy instead of paying the debts.
Several Illinois environmental groups have filed a complaint against
Midwest Generation for allegedly violating solid waste and water
pollution regulations at the company's four remaining Illinois coal
plants.
A mayoral task force released
a report Saturday with broad guidelines for how to redevelop the site
of two Chicago coal-fired power plants on the Southwest Side that shut down in
August. A main recommendation was that the sites be used to
create local jobs in non-polluting industries.
Community advocates
who live in the Pilsen neighborhood, the site of the closed Fisk plant, and
Little Village, home of the shuttered Crawford plant, credit Mayor Rahm
Emanuel not just for working with Midwest Generation company to
shut down the plants, but also for using a task force to spark community
dialogue.
“Usually task forces are where something goes to be
forgotten,” says Nelson Soza, executive director of Pilsen Alliance and a
member of the task force. “But this task force raised the profile of
these sites.”
However, the panel did not weigh in on a central
concern of community residents: who will take on remediation, i.e. the
process of cleaning up the industrial site. The report reads that, “The issue of
remediation was discussed by the Task Force, but the Task Force was
unable to reach consensus on a recommendation for further action.” Read more »
With an eye toward the potential shut down of all of its Illinois coal-fired power plants and a possible bankruptcy filing, the February agreement
Midwest Generation made with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to close two
coal plants on the Southwest Side increasingly looks like a good deal
for the company, and not the ideal outcome for residents who live near the facilities.
Audience members offered a range of ideas at a city hearing last night
about what to do with the site currently occupied by the 108 year-old
Fisk coal-fired power plant in the Pilsen neighborhood, which closes
this September. Some of the ideas included a park, funeral home, public market, trade school,
and even a high school sports complex.
But all these visions will
be stymied if the Midwest Generation company cannot find a buyer
willing to not just build something new but also clean up, or remediate,
the site.
“There is a huge marketing job ahead of us,” acknowledged
Jean Pogge, CEO of the Delta Institute, the Chicago non-profit in charge
of a task force Mayor Rahm Emanuel created to determine the site’s future. Read more »
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office will hold two community hearings
this week regarding the Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power plant sites
on Chicago’s South Side. Midwest Generation is scheduled
to close the plants in September. Community excitement that the aging
plants are shutting down has partly given way to fears that the city and
Midwest Generation will never clean up or “remediate” the sites.
“Nobody
wants to deal with the remediation process,” claims Rafeal Hurtado, an
organizer at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
(LVEJO), a group that advocated shutting down the Crawford plant. Read more »
Environmental activists are pushing to stay involved during the remediation and redevelopment of polluted sites on
Chicago’s Southwest Side.
There are considerable problems with air and land pollution in
Chicago’s Southwest neighborhoods of Pilsen and Little Village and, at a
meeting with community residents last night, the 
A mayoral task force 
Audience members offered a range of ideas at a city hearing last night
about what to do with the site currently occupied by the 108 year-old
Fisk coal-fired power plant in the Pilsen neighborhood, which closes
this September. Some of the ideas included a park, funeral home, public market, trade school,
and even a high school sports complex.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office will hold two community hearings
this week regarding the Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power plant sites
on Chicago’s South Side. Midwest Generation is scheduled
to close the plants in September. Community excitement that the aging
plants are shutting down has partly given way to fears that the city and
Midwest Generation will never clean up or “remediate” the sites.