Southeast Side dumping ground gets more protection from petcoke and manganese

A Southeast Side neighborhood that’s been Chicago’s dumping ground for decades is finally getting more protection from the dangers of petcoke and release of potentially harmful manganese dust.

Under pressure from area residents and their local alderman, the Department of Public Health is strengthening monitoring requirements for all bulk solid material facilities and establishing strict new rules for facilities handling “unpackaged manganese bearing materials.”

Manganese is a heavy metal used in steel making known to cause brain damage.

Last year, the City Council approved an ordinance championed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel that prohibited new facilities from storing or handling materials containing more than trace amounts of manganese.

The mayor’s ordinance did not apply to facilities where manganese has been stored for at least a year. But it did prohibit those companies from expanding operations that involve the heavy metal.

Already, the Health Department requires facilities that process, handle on-site, transfers, loads, unloads, stockpiles or stores bulk solid materials to have so-called “fugitive dust monitors” and place them in accordance with EPA guidelines.

The new rules will require those same facilities to submit “monitoring data” to city health officials on a monthly basis.

If the monthly report is deemed “insufficient to adequately assess the health impacts,” the Health Department would be empowered to mandate “other monitoring methods, including video recording and/or more filter-based monitoring sites.”

When trucks are used to transport materials, loaded truck trailers would have to be “immediately covered with a solid, sliding cover, stackable cover or continuous tarp,” under the new rules.

Local Ald. Susan Sadlowski-Garza (10th) said she’s grateful to Emanuel for responding to the pleas of area residents who have demanded greater protection for themselves and their children.

“The mayor and the Chicago Department of Public Health has been amazing working with our community….I can’t say anything bad about that. It’s been a true collaboration. And that’s never happened before — ever,” Sadlowski-Garza said.

“For them to sit down and listen and take our suggestions and work with us to actually make these rules and regulations happen and make ’em stronger — I’m really proud of that.”

Sadlowski-Garza acknowledged that her constituents will “never be satisfied” until hazardous materials are gone from their community.

“We did a lot of work on the petcoke issue and petcoke is still here. It’s contained. Nothing’s outside. Nothing’s blowing around…..We haven’t had any environmental issues since they enclosed the whole facility. But without a full-out ban,” you can never be fully protected, she said.

“If you go into a restaurant where there’s rat droppings and food poisoning, they close it down without asking anybody. We have a business that’s potentially harming our residents and we have to jump through hoops of fire to get them to meet the rules and regulations.”

Health Commissioner Dr. Julie Morita said the new rules should guarantee that “companies are doing everything possible to control the dust from getting into the air and getting into the communities.”

“If we need to strengthen the regulations, we can do that again,” she said.

“At this point, we don’t feel like it’s appropriate to ban manganese storage and handling. We’ll continue to monitor it…But for right now, this is where we landed and this is what we feel comfortable doing.”

Last year, Southeast Side residents, including a local elementary school student who lives near S.H. Bell Co., talked about the “game of whack-a-mole” that requires them to organize anew “every time there’s a new pollutant” dumped on their neighborhood.

They warned that, in Emanuel’s haste to appease Southeast Side residents, he proposed an ordinance that did not go nearly far enough.

Gina Ramirez, a third-generation resident of the Southeast Side with a 3-year-old child, urged the city to do more to “address the existing problem” — by banning manganese handling in certain areas and phasing it out in others. She noted that “many of these handlers and users have been in operations for decades” in the 10th Ward.

“I question every day if my son has been exposed. Not having strong enough restrictions puts my family and so many others at risk,” Ramirez said.

“I ask you to think if this was your neighborhood and you were raising a child in this environment, would this ordinance be strong enough? I am asking you today to protect people – not polluters.”