Clean Power Lake County is accepting applications for its 2024 Environmental Justice Summer Internship Program now through May 13. Interns can expect to have an enriching experience focused on environmental justice, community building, and creating positive change.
The program is open to upper high school (11th and 12th grades) and college-age young adults who are passionate about environmental justice and sustainability.
The 8-week paid program runs June 10–Aug. 8. Interns will work 10 hours per week, including 1–2 in-person workshops per week.
Applications will be accepted April 15–May 13, 2024.
Interested students may access the application here.
CPLC leaders and Eliana Bernat celebrate at the Brushwood-Smith Symposium gala.
Waukegan has always been a place of industry and a home for immigrants. Sadly, many industries have placed profits over people, abandoned the community when profits shrank, and left a deadly legacy of toxic pollution. This is the very definition of environmental injustice.
Clean Power Lake County (CPLC) exists because environmental injustice exists in our community. CPLC exists to change this reality! And as our 2023 milestones show, change is happening.
January
January 31: State Rep. Rita Mayfield and 9 other state representatives introduced legislation (House Bill 1608) requiring that all coal ash be removed from sites bordering Lake Michigan. Toxic waste from the Waukegan Generating Station on the lakefront has contaminated groundwater for more than 10 years.
February
February 3: The Biden administration said it will consider closing a loophole that exempts over half a billion tons of toxic coal ash from federal oversight. The announcement came after CPLC and other public interest groups—represented by Earthjustice—agreed to settle a suit with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
February 6: CPLC issued a statement opposing the proposed sale of 52 acres of public Lake County Forest Preserves land to the Waukegan Port District, which would allow for construction of a new 7,000-foot runway at Waukegan National Airport.
March
March 7: CPLC co-chairEddie Flores co-hosted a virtual watch party for “No Climate. No Equity. No Deal.” during the One Earth Film Festival. The film follows the grassroots movements that led to the passage of Illinois’ Climate and Equitable Jobs Act.
March 11: In a panel discussion on “Chicago Tonight-Latino Voices,” CPLC co-chair Dulce Ortiz said Cook County’s extreme smog pollution contributes to air quality problems in Lake County. These disproportionately impact Latino communities.
March 15: WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” highlighted the scourge of coal ash pollution at the Waukegan coal plant. State Rep. Rita Mayfield and CPLC’s Dulce Ortiz continue to lead the fight for full clean-up of the Waukegan lakefront.
March 20: Congressman Brad Schneider and Mayor Ann Taylor celebrated federal funding for a fleet of new electric PACE buses in Waukegan. The transit agency made the North Division in Waukegan its first Zero Emission Facility in response to a strong campaign led by CPLC.
April
April 11: The EPA announced two actions to update regulations of carcinogenic emissions from ethylene oxide (EtO) commercial sterilization facilities: 1) a proposed rule requiring sterilizer facilities to reduce emissions by installing control technology; and 2) a proposed interim registration review decision based on findings that registered uses of EtO present up to a 1 in 10 lifetime cancer risk for workers inside sterilization facilities.
April 15: Our spring 2023 interns led CPLC’s first post-pandemic community outreach: a table at the Green Living Fair at College of Lake County’s Grayslake campus. Andres Fuentes Teba, Maurico Calderon, and Maite Olivera—all students at Lake Forest College—collected petitions opposing the Waukegan airport expansion and answered questions about Illinois’ pending coal ash bill.
April 19: CPLC’s Celeste Flores represented vulnerable environmental justice communities in northeast Illinois during Environmental Lobby Day rally in Springfield.
May
May 17: In a major win for Waukegan and other communities near coal plants, the EPA issued a draft rule to extend federal monitoring, closure, and cleanup requirements to hundreds of previously excluded older coal ash landfills, legacy ponds, and fill sites.
June
June 13: CPLC co-chairEddie Flores and members of other environmental groups joined Earthjustice in the nation’s capital to advocate for stronger protections against ethylene oxide emissions.
June 23: Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods launched a new report, Health, Equity, and Nature: A Changing Climate in Lake County, Illinois, identifying Waukegan as the most overburdened community in the area.
June 27: During the EPA Region 5 Coal Ash Community Hearing in Waukegan, activists from CPLC, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, and Sierra Club called on EPA to hold NRG Energy accountable for coal ash removal and to enforce a timeline for the cleanup.
June 28: During the only public EPA coal ash hearing held in the country, CPLC members and interns urged EPA to finalize its proposed coal ash rule and close the remaining loopholes that allow coal ash pollution to continue.
July
July 21: Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced $38 million for clean energy workforce hubs. The network of 13 community-based hubs—including one in Waukegan—will offer training, job placement services, barrier reduction support and more. Hubs represent the largest training component of the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA).
August
August 12: CPLC’s summer interns capped off their experience with presentations outlining ways industries affect our community’s residents, air, water, land, and health. The public program was held in the Eleanor Murkey Community Center at the College of Lake County’s Lakeshore campus.
August 24: A U.S. District Court signed a consent decree ordering the EPA to finalize much-needed updates to ethylene oxide regulations by March 1, 2024.This comes after years of advocacy by communities across the country, including a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice on behalf of CPLC and other environmental and justice organizations.
September
September 29: During its Smith Nature Symposium Awards Dinner, Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods introduced CPLC as one of its newest community partners.
October
October 19: In one of three city council meetings about relaxing Waukegan’s Tree Preservation and Landscape Ordinance, CPLC’s Karen Long MacLeod reminded alderpersons that trees are vital for Waukegan: They minimize stormwater runoff, erosion, and flood risks; reduce heating and cooling costs for businesses and residences alike; and filter harmful dust and pollutants from the air we breathe.
November
November 6: CPLC’s Rev. Eileen Shanley-Roberts led about 20 environmental studies students from Lake Forest College on a “toxic tour” of Waukegan’s environmental justice sites.
December
December 11: The Waukegan City Council voted to table further discussion of proposed changes to the Tree Preservation and Landscaping ordinance until the Unified Development Ordinance—which will combine tree preservation and landscape, zoning, subdivision, and sign codes into one comprehensive law—is available for review in the spring.
Priorities for 2024
We are excited about new opportunities to advance climate justice in Waukegan. We will:
Continue pursuing a just transition for the Waukegan coal plant. This means ensuring that all coal ash is removed from the Waukegan Generating Station site. It should not be allowed to contaminate Lake Michigan, the source of drinking water for 6 million people in four states.
Working to ensure workforce training programs under the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) increase access for marginalized communities and include community-driven approaches that lead to jobs, capital to complete projects, and more.
Supporting federal action to protect our community from emissions of ethylene oxide and other harmful chemicals.
Under a consent decree signed in U.S. District Court last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has until March 1, 2024, to finalize much-needed updates for regulations on ethylene oxide (EtO).
This court-enforced deadline comes after years of advocacy from communities across the country and a corresponding lawsuit filed by Earthjustice on behalf of California Communities Against Toxics, Clean Power Lake County, Rio Grande International Study Center, Sierra Club, and Union of Concerned Scientists.
The lawsuit, filed in December 2022, challenged EPA for failing to take legally required action to protect the public from carcinogenic air emissions from commercial sterilizing facilities using EtO.
“[The] consent decree signing is a critical step to ensuring that communities across the U.S. get needed protections from ethylene oxide emissions from commercial sterilizers. For years, EPA has promised new regulations to rein in commercial sterilizers’ toxic ethylene oxide emissions,” said Earthjustice Senior Attorney Marvin Brown. “And after years of missing their own deadlines, we sued and secured a judicially enforceable deadline. Now EPA must do its part and ensure that its sterilizer rule protects communities from this cancer-causing pollution.”
Ethylene oxide is a colorless, typically odorless, flammable gas used to sterilize medical equipment and to help produce chemicals needed for antifreeze, plastics, detergents, and adhesives. It is one of the most toxic air pollutants EPA regulates. It is a known carcinogen to humans, especially when inhaled.
In 2016, EPA admitted that the chemical is 60 times more toxic than previously estimated.
Now the agency must use the best-available science to enact the strongest possible protections to ensure that impacted communities will not continue being exposed to this aggressive carcinogen.
“As a result of the collaboration of environmental justice communities and national environmental organizations, [this] marks a monumental step towards cleaner air,” said Celeste Flores, Clean Power Lake County steering committee member. “We are one step closer to ensuring that the EPA finalizes the crucial commercial sterilizer rules for EtO. We urge the EPA to act swiftly and pass the strongest regulations for healthy communities.”
Activists with Clean Power Lake County, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, and Sierra Club attend a US EPA community meeting in Waukegan, Illinois, on coal ash cleanup. [Photo courtesy of Dulce Ortiz]
At a community meeting last week, Waukegan and Lake County residents joined Clean Power Lake County (CPLC) in calling on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to hold NRG Energy accountable and enforce a timeline for coal ash cleanup at the Waukegan Generating Station. They urged EPA to move forward with its proposal to deny NRG Energy’s request to continue dumping coal ash and other wastewater into inadequately lined storage ponds. They also urged EPA to adopt the strictest rules possible and ensure toxic coal ash is cleaned up for good.
EPA recently released a proposed determination that would deny NRG Energy’s request for an extension to close one of its unlined ash ponds on the shores of Lake Michigan. Under federal coal ash rules, operators were required to close unlined coal ash ponds by April 2021. However, NRG Energy filed an extension request to prolong that deadline to June 2023, and continues to actively discharge wastewater into the pond. The proposed decision to deny NRG’s extension request is available for public comment until August 4, 2023.
While NRG Energy retired the last two coal-fired generating units at the Waukegan station in June 2022, the company continues to operate an electric peaking unit with diesel fuel. The peaking unit is a significant concern to the community and may be connected to the wastewater being discharged into the east ash pond.
NRG’s Waukegan site has two active ash ponds and a legacy ash pond that the Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB) ruled in 2019 was responsible for ongoing groundwater contamination. The ongoing litigation before the IPCB—brought by Sierra Club, Prairie Rivers Network, Citizens Against Ruining the Environment, and the Environmental Law & Policy Center—is still pending as appropriate remedies and penalties are being assessed.
Activists: Close coal ash loopholes
The community meeting in Waukegan came the day before a public hearing in Chicago on the agency’s latest proposed coal ash rules, which are intended to close loopholes for legacy ash in the original 2015 federal rules. The EPA’s proposed federal rules are open for public comment until July 17, 2023.
In response to EPA’s proposals, Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor, Clean Power Lake County, and Sierra Club Illinois released the following statement:
“The City of Waukegan is on the path toward mitigating decades of environmental hazards and economic revitalization for the betterment of our community. Waukegan needs the federal and state EPAs to join us in ensuring NRG Energy cleans up its coal ash pollution on our lakefront,” said Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor. “I urge the US EPA to finalize strict federal coal ash rules that close all industry loopholes and, most importantly, I urge them to enforce all coal ash standards so that polluter accountability is not left to community residents and municipalities like Waukegan.”
“The US EPA’s proposed denial of NRG’s request is welcomed, but it falls short of the action and accountability we need from the agency to stop the ongoing coal ash contamination of the groundwater on our lakefront,” said Clean Power Lake County co-chair Dulce Ortiz. “Community residents and partners have fought for too long to hold this corporation accountable and it’s time for federal and state agencies to demonstrate real leadership and hold NRG accountable for well-known pollution violations and require them to remove coal ash waste from the lakefront.”
“At every turn, NRG Energy has sought delays and exemptions from federal and state coal ash rules, leaving Waukegan in the lurch as the corporation’s toxic coal ash continues to contaminate groundwater on the shores of Lake Michigan,” said Christine Nannicelli, Senior Campaign Representative with Sierra Club Illinois. “EPA’s proposed decision to deny NRG’s latest loophole request is an obvious choice to ensure coal ash contamination in Waukegan isn’t further exacerbated. Still, neither the federal EPA nor Illinois EPA have delivered a coal ash cleanup plan for the community, and both agencies must close regulatory loopholes, require NRG to remove its ash from groundwater, and actually enforce these critical standards.”
Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the formal establishment of the agency’s first-ever National Environmental Youth Advisory Council (NEYAC). The NEYAC will provide a critical perspective on how climate change and other environmental harms affect youth communities as well as independent recommendations on addressing a range of environmental issues.
EPA is soliciting applications for youth to fill 16 vacancies on the NEYAC. Selected applicants will contribute to a balance of perspectives, backgrounds, and experience of the council and will be appointed by EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. All members of NEYAC will be between the ages of 16 and 29.
As part of the agency’s commitment to centering environmental justice communities, at least 50% of the overall membership of NEYAC will come from, reside primarily in, and/or do most of their work in disadvantaged communities as defined by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) as part of Justice40.
“We can’t tackle the environmental challenges of our time without input from our younger communities, who’ve long been at the forefront of social movements,” said Regan. “This committee will help ensure that the voices and perspectives of our youth are included and valued in EPA’s decision-making as we continue to advance President Biden’s commitment to ensuring everyone in this country has access to clean air, safe water and healthy land, now and for generations to come.”
How to apply for NEYAC
NEYAC applications are due by August 22, 2023, at 11:59 pm ET. To apply, candidates must provide:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed changes to coal combustion residuals (CCR) regulations that would extend federal monitoring, closure, and cleanup protections to hundreds of older landfills, legacy ponds, and fill sites. The draft rule is a big leap forward—but it does not ensure that polluters clean up all toxic coal ash, without exceptions.
We have a historic opportunity to confront our nation’s quiet catastrophe. Will you join us in demanding a strong federal rule at the public hearing in downtown Chicago on June 28?
EPA’s proposed rules do not include all coal ash ponds and landfills located in floodplains; all coal ash ponds and landfills located on unstable ground and wetlands; coal ash ponds that did not have water in them when the original rule went into effect (October 2015) or after; all inactive landfills at former coal plant sites; or coal ash used as construction fill at playgrounds, schools, and throughout neighborhoods.
It is critical that we speak out! Of the estimated 566 landfills and ponds at 242 coal plants in 40 states excluded from the original rule, the vast majority are contaminating drinking water, rivers, streams, and Great Lakes and endangering lives across the country, according to Earthjustice. The people of Waukegan, North Chicago, Beach Park, and Zion have the right to hold EPA accountable for enacting the strongest protection possible.
Attend a community meeting on coal ash. EPA will host a public meeting in downtown Waukegan on June 27. Officials will talk about coal ash and resources available to the community. Community members also will have an opportunity to speak.
When coal is burned to produce electricity, a toxic waste known as coal ash is left behind. Coal ash is filled with hazardous metals and toxic pollutants such as arsenic, lithium, lead, and other carcinogens and neurotoxins. Coal ash poisons our water, sickens our bodies, and kills fish and wildlife.
U.S. coal-fired power plants continue to generate more than 70 million tons of coal ash waste each year, making it one of our nation’s largest toxic industrial waste streams, according to Poisonous Coverup, an Environmental Integrity Project/Earthjustice report. Often, coal ash is stored in unlined pits or “ponds,” which may hold tens of millions of tons of dangerous waste. These pits leak toxic waste into underlying groundwater and nearby surface waters.
The coal plant on Waukegan’s lakefront stopped burning coal in 2022, but it has three legacy CCR impoundments. It is just one of many toxic sites located in disproportionately low-income communities and communities of color.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed rules that could cut ethylene oxide (EtO) emitted from commercial sterilizing facilities by 80%. These rules are a step forward—but they do not go far enough to fully protect communities and workers from this aggressive carcinogen.
EPA’s proposed rules do not include warehouses, which can emit more EtO than commercial sterilizers. They do not require up-to-date monitoring technology, which can detect much lower emissions. They do not call for fenceline monitoring, which would let communities like Waukegan know when emissions exceed limits.
It is critical that we speak out! EtO sterilizers emit harmful air pollution day in and day out, endangering those living, working, or going to school nearby. The people of Waukegan, North Chicago, and Gurnee have the right to hold EPA accountable for enacting the strongest protection possible.
Here’s how you can help!
Please submit public comments to the EPA by June 27, 2023.
E-mail comments to a-and-r-docket@epa.gov, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2019-0178. Please include the docket number in the subject line of your email message.
Email cplc@cleanpowerlakecounty.org for background material (courtesy of our friends at Union of Concerned Scientists) that can help you prepare your comments.
As part of a settlement between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and public interest groups represented by Earthjustice, the agency on May 17 published proposed revisions to federal safeguards for coal ash.
In a major win for communities near coal plants—like Waukegan—the draft rule extends federal monitoring, closure, and cleanup requirements to hundreds of previously excluded older landfills, legacy ponds, and fill sites.
The revisions would close an important loophole in the 2015 Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule, which excluded coal ash at power plants that stopped producing power and landfills that stopped receiving new waste before the law went into effect.
At least 566 landfills and ponds at 242 coal plants in 40 states were exempted from the 2015 federal regulations, according to Earthjustice.
The exempted coal ash ponds and landfills are sited disproportionately in low-income communities and communities of color.
Since October 2015, many coal plant owners have evaded cleanup requirements almost entirely by blaming nearby unregulated dumps for any pollution detected.
This practice would end under the proposed EPA rule: Site owners would be required to monitor and clean up all coal ash at a given site, rather than trying to regulate each dump at a site individually.
“We are hopeful this rule will hold these industries accountable and send a message that community members and taxpayers will no longer be responsible to clean up their mess. We all deserve healthy communities and environments that our families and future generations can enjoy,” said Dulce Ortiz, co-chair of Clean Power Lake County.
Proposed rule falls short
Unfortunately, the proposed rule does not address all coal ash dump sites at former coal plants. It leaves out ponds that did not contain water as of the original rule’s effective date (October 2015) or after.
In addition, it does not address coal ash that was used as construction fill at playgrounds, schools, and throughout neighborhoods.
Earthjustice and its partners, including Clean Power Lake County, insist that the EPA should extend federal coal ash regulations to all coal ash disposed at current and retired power plant sites to address immediate threats and prevent further contamination.
“As the EPA works to finalize these reforms by next year, there are a few things they need to do,” said Lisa Evans, senior counsel for Earthjustice. “The EPA must close the loophole tightly, so utilities cannot avoid cleaning up any toxic waste. It doesn’t matter when or where it’s been dumped; it needs to be dealt with. The EPA must keep close tabs on whether the utilities are complying with federal health protections. We’ve learned polluters rarely do the right thing unless they know there are serious consequences. Enforcement will make or break these new safeguards.”
Once the rule is published in the federal register, there will be a 60-day public comment period and public hearings.
Nonprofit legal organization Earthjustice filed the coal ash landfill litigation in 2022 in US District Court on behalf of plaintiffs Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (Tennessee), Indiana State Conference and LaPorte County Branch of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People, Hoosier Environmental Council (Indiana), Clean Power Lake County (Illinois), Environmental Integrity Project, and Sierra Club.
Earthjustice filed litigation to address legacy ponds in 2015 on behalf of Clean Water Action (Washington, D.C.), Comité Dialogo Ambiental Inc. (Puerto Rico), PennEnvironment (Pennsylvania), Hoosier Environmental Council, Tennessee Clean Water Network, Environmental Integrity Project, Prairie Rivers Network, Sierra Club, and Waterkeeper Alliance.
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released two proposed actions to update its regulations of carcinogenic emissions from ethylene oxide (EtO) commercial sterilization facilities.
The first proposed rule will require sterilizer facilities to reduce emissions from both major and minor sources by installing control technology within 18 months of the publication of the final rule. According to the EPA, these regulations will eliminate an estimated 80% of EtO emissions once implemented.
The proposed rule is a long overdue and much needed first step, say advocates who have urged EPA to strengthen rules to fully protect communities and workers from this aggressive carcinogen.
However, today’s proposed rule falls short of providing communities with the full protection they deserve. One, it does not require fenceline monitoring. Two, it contains a potential loophole for off-site warehouses where sterilized products—which can continue to produce EtO emissions—are stored.
EPA also released a revised risk assessment and proposed interim registration review decision based on findings that registered uses of EtO present up to a 1 in 10 lifetime cancer risk for workers inside sterilization facilities. This is among the highest risks ever calculated under the nation’s federal pesticide control law.
EPA’s revised risk assessment and proposed interim registration includes new requirements for workers using ethylene oxide as a sterilizer, but it stops short of phasing out its use in food products.
Today’s proposed rule comes after Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against the EPA for failing to update standards to protect the public from harmful air emissions from EtO sterilization facilities.
The Clean Air Act directs the EPA to review its ethylene oxide standards every eight years. However, the agency has repeatedly missed this deadline—first in 2014 and again in April 2022.
“Today’s proposals are an important first step in remedying an injustice that affects far too many communities,” said Earthjustice attorney Marvin Brown. “Too many workers and community members have gotten cancer from facilities that are supposed to make sure that our medical equipment is safe. We know, and EPA knows, that ethylene oxide poses a dire cancer risk to anyone who breathes it in.”
Brown added, “While EPA must move quickly to reduce ethylene oxide emissions, it must go further and ensure that frontline communities have the data to know when their air is safe through fenceline monitoring. And the agency must move quickly to reduce and phase out the use of ethylene oxide for sterilizing products that can be safely sterilized by other means.”
“The EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment, and we are grateful that the agency has taken the first steps to follow through. However, we have been waiting too long for them to fulfill their legal obligation to us and communities across the country,” said Celeste Flores, steering committee member with Clean Power Lake County. “Ethylene oxide sterilizers emit harmful air emissions day in and day out, endangering those living, working, or going to school nearby. We’re looking forward to ensuring that the EPA is held accountable and enacts the strongest protection possible.”
Facilities that emit ethylene oxide are typically found in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, many already grappling with elevated toxic exposure and health risks from multiple forms of industrial pollution. Children are particularly sensitive to ethylene oxide’s harmful effects.
The Waukegan Port District has not engaged the public in a transparent process around impacts of the proposed expansion of Waukegan National Airport. [Photo: Thor Jorgen Udvang/Dreamstime]
The vision of Clean Power Lake County is to build a sustainable community that promotes the healthy development of all Lake County communities, especially those most vulnerable, by addressing environmental racism, practicing participatory democracy, advancing self-determination, and empowering BIPOC community members. The proposed expansion of Waukegan National Airport, specifically to replace the current runway with one longer than runways used at Midway and Chicago Executive Airports, completely undermines this vision.
The Waukegan Port District, which owns and operates the airport, has failed to engage the public in a transparent process around impacts of the proposed expansion. Moreover, the municipal corporation failed to provide a thorough environmental impact statement for members of the public or the Lake County Forest Preserve District (LCFPD) to review before asking it to approve the proposal.
For the planned expansion to proceed, the Port District needs to acquire 52 acres of designated public land entrusted to the LCFPD. This land is in a part of Lake County that has significantly less public green space than more affluent portions of the county, and where existing public lands have not been improved in ways that support public access. This area cannot afford to lose more green space.
Clean Power Lake County believes it would be a violation of public trust for the LCFPD to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement with the Port District before the full environmental impact report is released and public hearings are held.
The people of Wadsworth, Zion, Beach Park, and Waukegan have the right to access complete and accurate information about this proposal and must be allowed to exercise their rights as community members who will experience the negative impacts of airport expansion.
The LCFPD has the responsibility to act in the best interests of both the people of Lake County and the green spaces entrusted to their care. Airport expansion is not urgent and does not require a rushed process. A change of this magnitude requires public engagement, transparency, and a thorough process.
The LCFPD must exercise its authority and require the Port District to demonstrate substantial value to the community, minimal negative environmental impacts, and assurance that there will be no loss of accessible green space in northeastern Lake County. Anything less would further erode the trust we place in our elected officials and jeopardize the future of our communities.
Clean Power Lake County 