Environmental justice activists expressed disappointment Thursday in the city’s response to a watchdog’s recommendations on the Hilco smokestack demolition, calling for further disciplinary action to be taken against those they say are responsible and calling attention to other environmental challenges across the state.
“It feels like we relive that day over and over again,” said Kim Wasserman, executive director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization at the virtual news conference. “Knowing that this was going to happen, and being told that nothing could be done.”
The city did not fire any officials as a result of the botched April 2020 implosion that covered the Little Village in dust, according to the office’s quarterly report released Friday. The office of the inspector general had recommended that two people from the city’s Department of Buildings be disciplined, and one person from the Department of Public Health be disciplined up to the level of firing, the report said.
Debris coated the neighborhood despite warnings up to seven months prior that the dust would be “unpreventable” and “almost cataclysmic,” according to the watchdog’s report, and “despite predictions by (Department of Public Health) senior staff that toppling the smokestack would be a ‘disaster.’ ”
Instead of disciplinary action, two Department of Buildings employees will undergo “remedial counseling,” the report said. The public health employee who faced potential firing under the inspector general’s recommendation instead received a written reprimand.
The city departments said the responsibility for the demolition lies with the redevelopment company, rather than the government. They argued structural changes would do more to protect public health than individual discipline, the report said.
The inspector general did not release the names of the individuals involved.
“We want to see people fired,” Olga Bautista, executive director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, said at the conference. “This is inexcusable.”
Activists from the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Chicago Environmental Justice Network and Sierra Club Illinois demanded an apology from Mayor Lori Lightfoot, ongoing air quality monitoring and air cleaning, and the release of the inspector general’s full report — a different document than the one published last week.
The lack of discipline for city employees and lack of accountability for elected officials are part of “a pattern of behavior” that shows the city and its institutions “don’t respect the human lives of marginalized people” or those living in Little Village, said Anderson Chavez, an activist with organizing group Unete La Villita.
“It’s just another manifestation of environmental racism,” Chavez said.
He called out elected officials, including Lightfoot and Ald. Michael Rodriguez, 22nd, who he said could do more to advocate for the community.
Rodriguez also spoke Thursday and expressed disappointment in the city’s lack of disciplinary action but left before Chavez’s comments.
The city has a specific responsibility to protect the health of residents in “communities that are already burdened by disproportionate pollution,” such as Little Village, said Serap Erdal, an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health.
“This event was completely preventable with proper planning and coordination with the community by the city,” Erdel said. She called for comprehensive soil sampling to detect chemicals and permanent air quality monitoring in the neighborhood.
Activists have previously said Hilco and city departments were ill-prepared to handle a smokestack demolition. Residents of Little Village, which houses more than two dozen industrial facilities that use medium or heavy duty diesel trucks, have long fought for cleaner air.
Chicago ranks third in deaths and health costs related to diesel pollution, according to a recent analysis from the nonprofit group Clean Air Task Force. The pollution causes $3.7 billion each year in hidden health costs, and 340 people in the metropolitan area can be expected to die next year from diseases related to diesel pollution, the report said.
Activists at Thursday’s news conference also asked for a permit to be denied to a metal shredding facility on the Southeast Side, an issue that has also been protested by environmental justice organizers in recent months.
Illinois environmental activists are further monitoring the demolition of other smokestacks across the state, possibly as soon as this year, Sierra Club Illinois Director Jack Darin said at the conference.
“The state of Illinois has a responsibility to protect these communities, to make sure that this disaster isn’t replicated across the state,” Darin said.
January 21, 2022 at 03:13AM
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-activists-respond-inspector-general-little-village-20220120-7o3x6rbiuvaexcnm6csnzw6phm-story.html
Environmental justice activists respond to lack of disciplinary action after botched Little Village implosion - Chicago Tribune
https://news.google.com/search?q=little&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment