City fines Hilco $2,500 for canal runoff following Little Village smokestack implosion

City health officials slapped a $2,500 fine on a suburban development firm Friday after discovering it was allowing “silty water” to seep into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal nearly a month after a botched smokestack implosion in Little Village.

A city health inspector found the runoff water going into the canal Wednesday near the shuttered Crawford power station at Pulaski Road, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.

Northbrook-based Hilco Redevelopment Partners and a demolition contractor leveled a 95-year-old smokestack there April 11, sending clouds of dust cascading through the mostly Latino, low-income neighborhood — all while an acute respiratory disease sweeps the globe with an especially devastating impact on Illinois’ Latino community.

“CDPH will continue the investigation to determine whether there were any chemicals contained in the runoff while simultaneously reviewing the developer’s current procedures to ensure similar situations will not occur in the future,” city health officials said in a statement.

City code requires developers to control stormwater during demolition and construction. Hilco had “the proper permits and an onsite management plan for stormwater” but their “error” resulted in the runoff, officials said.

Representatives for Hilco, which is building a warehouse and distribution center at the site, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company previously apologized “for the anxiety and fear caused,” saying “the health, safety and welfare of the local community is of paramount concern.”

They now face a class-action lawsuit from a group of residents who complained “nothing was done to minimize the effect of this hazardous material to not flow to all of us surrounding this plant.”

And Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul sued Hilco, MCM Management Corp. and Controlled Demolition Inc. earlier this week for violating state pollution laws. Raoul’s suit claims they failed to “adequately [wet] the area around the smokestack and, in particular, the area where the smokestack hit the ground.”

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Mayor Lori Lightfoot has blasted the company for the demolition, but health officials have said testing of dust, particulate matter, debris and soil show “no apparent health risk to the surrounding community.” And air quality tests “showed no particulate levels considered to be unsafe for human health” under federal EPA standards.

Lightfoot has imposed a six-month moratorium on city implosions during the coronavirus pandemic “pending the creation of a specific implosion permitting process with updated guidelines.”

City officials said “the health and wellness of Chicago’s residents remains the City’s top priority, and we are committed to holding anyone that jeopardizes the general public health accountable.”