HomePosts tagged 'Earthjustice'

Earthjustice

Victory for Waukegan! Draft revisions to EPA rule address legacy coal ash dumps and landfills

Karen Long MacLeod Campaign Updates, Community News , , , , , , , , ,
COAL ASH VICTORY! banner superimposed over photo of Waukegan coal plant

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.

View the Earthjustice map of coal ash dump sites.

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.

EPA proposes new regulations to reduce cancer risks from ethylene oxide sterilization facilities

Karen Long MacLeod Campaign Updates , , , , , , , ,

[Photo by Takasuu-Getty Images]

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.

CPLC: 2022 highlights

Karen Long MacLeod Campaign Updates, Community News, Events, News Clips , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
  • The power plant on Waukegan’s lakefront stops burning coal in June 2022! [Photo: Karen Long MacLeod/CPLC]
  • Dulce Ortiz in video clip
    CPLC co-chair Dulce Ortiz worries about toxic coal ash at the Waukegan lakefront.
  • Dulce Ortiz at podium in Waukegan City Hall
    CPLC co-chair Dulce Ortiz demands toxic coal ash be removed from the lakefront ASAP. [Photo: Rep. Rita Mayfield]
  • CPLC interns in Facebook post
    CPLC Summer 2022 interns.
  • Eddie Flores poses with environmental coloring book.
    CPLC co-chair Eddie Flores shares his environmental justice journey in a new coloring book.
  • Fire and smoke from explosion in a middle of a cityy
    US EPA must do more to prevent chemical disasters, says CPLC’s Celeste Flores. [Photo: Coming Clean]

WE DID IT! In 2022, after working together as a community for more than 10 years, we shut down the last two coal-burning units at the Waukegan Generating Station’s Lake Michigan site.

The coal plant’s closure definitely stands out as the biggest milestone of the year for Clean Power Lake County (CPLC). Yet it is just one of several moments in 2022 worth noting.

January

January 11: State Rep. Rita Mayfield and State Sen. Adriane Johnson introduced legislation (House Bill 4358/Senate Bill 3073) requiring removal of all coal ash from the Waukegan Generating Station site. The toxic waste has contaminated groundwater at the Lake Michigan site for more than 10 years.

February

February 18: CPLC supporters met virtually with state legislators to lobby for bills addressing environmental injustices in the issuance of permits, requiring removal of all coal ash from the Waukegan Generating Station site, and more.

February 25: The Illinois Senate passed a bill requiring removal of all coal ash from the Waukegan Generating Station site. If enacted, it would safeguard Lake Michigan, the main source of drinking water for nearly 6 million people.

April

April 7: Despite widespread community support and Illinois Senate approval, a bill requiring removal of all coal ash from the Waukegan Generating Station site did not advance in the Illinois House during the last week of the spring legislative session.

April 27: ComEd filed new rates with the Illinois Commerce Commission to give direct credits of more than $1 billion to customers—a result of the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA).

June

June 1: NRG shut down the last two coal-burning units at the Waukegan Generating Station. Huge win for our community! Closing the lakefront coal plant has been CPLC’s top priority for almost 10 years.

June 9: WBEZ-Chicago and WGN-TV highlighted serious concerns about hazardous coal ash waste left behind at the newly closed Waukegan Generating Station. CPLC co-chair Dulce Ortiz, Sierra Club’s Christine Nannicelli, State Rep. Rita Mayfield, and Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor were interviewed.

June 13: CPLC celebrated the delivery of the first of six battery-electric Pace buses slated for Waukegan. The transit agency decided to make the North Division in Waukegan its first Zero Emission Facility in response to a strong campaign led by CPLC Steering Committee member Leah Hartung.

June 27: Citing newly identified flood risks at the Waukegan power plant, CPLC co-chair Dulce Ortiz demanded NRG be held accountable for cleaning up toxic coal ash at the site as soon as possible. Joining the call for action were Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor, State Rep. Rita Mayfield, State Sen. Adriane Johnson, and Congressman Brad Schneider.

July

July 28: CPLC offered a fond farewell to Summer 2022 interns: Waukegan native Michelle Aguilar, a government and politics major at Scripps College in Claremont, California; and Maddie Young, an environmental studies major at American University in Washington, D.C.

August

August 16: President Joe Biden signed a sweeping $750 billion health care, tax, and climate bill into law. Thanks to the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), Illinois is in a strong position to use the historic climate funding included in the Inflation Reduction Act.

August 20: CPLC co-chair Eddie Flores signed copies of Eddie’s Environmental Justice Journey during a downtown Waukegan event. The bilingual coloring book was a collaborative effort by Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods, CPLC, and local artist Diana Nava.

August 25: Earthjustice—on behalf of CPLC and other groups—sued the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for exempting at least half a billion tons of coal ash in nearly 300 landfills in 38 states from standards designed to protect people from cancer-causing chemicals.

September

September 15: One year after the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) was signed, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition saluted volunteers across Illinois—including CPLC supporters—who fought like the planet depended on it (it does) for a #FossilFreeIL.

September 26–28: CPLC Steering Committee member Celeste Flores urged the US EPA to require chemical facilities to prepare for climate change by implementing safer chemicals and processes. Our message during the virtual hearing: Voluntary measures aren’t enough to prevent chemical disasters.

November

November 4: A project to monitor ethylene oxide (EtO) in Lake County will receive a US EPA grant funded by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. “ Testing is a good start,” said CPLC Steering Committee member Celeste Flores in a Lake County News-Sun article.

December

December 14: Earthjustice—on behalf of CPLC and other groups—sued the US EPA for failing to take legally required action to protect the public from carcinogenic air emissions from ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization facilities.

2023 vision 

Now that pandemic lockdowns are behind us (forever, we hope!), we are excited about the opportunity to work with you in person once again!

Priorities for 2023: 

  • Ensuring 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.

To support CPLC’s work, please make a gift today.

EPA inaction exposes vulnerable communities to cancer-causing ethylene oxide every day

Karen Long MacLeod Campaign Updates , , , , , , ,

US EPA plaque
The US Environmental Protection Agency faces a lawsuit for inaction that exposes millions to cancer-causing ethylene oxide every day. [Image: Nojustice-Canva]

Last week, Earthjustice—on behalf of Clean Power Lake County and other environmental and health advocacy groups—filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to take legally required action to protect the public from harmful carcinogenic air emissions from ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization facilities.

The Clean Air Act directs the EPA to review its EtO standards every eight years. However, the agency has repeatedly missed this deadline—first in 2014 and again in April 2022.

Clean Power Lake County and other groups hope this lawsuit will compel EPA to finally act and protect vulnerable communities across the country.

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. This toxic chemical is a known carcinogen to humans, especially when inhaled.

EPA updated ethylene oxide’s toxicity value in 2016 and admits the chemical is 60 times more toxic than previously estimated. Yet, despite knowing that ethylene oxide emitters pose an elevated cancer risk to nearby communities, EPA has not reviewed its rules for sterilizers since 2006.

“For too long, EPA has delayed updating the sterilizer rule while communities suffer unnecessary toxic exposure and unacceptable cancer risks,” said Earthjustice attorney Marvin Brown. “The Clean Air Act requires EPA to protect communities from the harmful effects of air pollution and ensure that industry emissions do not threaten public health. By failing to timely revise its sterilizer rule, EPA has left communities to fend for themselves against a deadly, cancer-causing chemical. No one should get cancer from the facilities that make sure that medical equipment is safe. We are calling on the EPA to finally remedy this injustice without further delay.”

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.

As each day passes, dozens of communities continue to wait on EPA to fulfill its legal obligations under the Clean Air Act.

“The EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment. They are failing my community and communities across the country with their inaction to regulate harmful air emissions from ethylene oxide facilities,” said Celeste Flores, steering committee member with Clean Power Lake County. “It’s unacceptable that everyday community members have been forced to file this suit in order for the EPA to be accountable and update their standards as required by law. Our rights have been violated and the EPA must do its job.”

Earthjustice filed the December 14 challenge on behalf of Communities Against Toxics, Clean Power Lake County, Rio Grande International Study Center, Sierra Club, and Union of Concerned Scientists

EPA faces lawsuit as inaction exposes millions to carcinogenic ethylene oxide every day

Karen Long MacLeod Campaign Updates , , , , , , ,
US EPA plaque
The US Environmental Protection Agency faces a lawsuit for inaction that exposes millions to cancer-causing ethylene oxide every day. [Image: Nojustice-Canva]

Today, Earthjustice—on behalf of Clean Power Lake County and other environmental and health advocacy groups—sent a 60-day Notice of Intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the agency’s inaction to regulate harmful carcinogenic air emissions from ethylene oxide (EtO) facilities as the law required.

The Clean Air Act directs the EPA to review its EtO standards every eight years. However, the agency has repeatedly missed this deadline—first in 2014 and again in April 2022.

The EPA admits the chemical is 60 times more toxic than previously estimated and that facilities that emit EtO, including commercial sterilizers and chemical manufacturers, pose an elevated cancer risk to nearby communities. Children are particularly sensitive to ethylene oxide when exposed.

Ethylene oxide is a colorless, typically odorless, flammable gas used to sterilize medical equipment and in the production of chemicals needed for antifreeze, plastics, detergents, and adhesives. It is one of the most toxic air pollutants EPA regulates. This toxic chemical is a known carcinogen to humans, especially when inhaled.

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.

“EPA has delayed for too long to update sterilizer rule while communities suffer unnecessary toxic exposure and unacceptable cancer risks,” said Earthjustice attorney Marvin Brown. “Congress passed the Clean Air Act to protect communities from the harmful effects of air pollution, and tasked EPA with ensuring that industry emissions do not threaten public health. By failing to timely revise its sterilizer rule, EPA has left communities to fend for themselves against a deadly, cancer-causing chemical. We are calling on the EPA to finally remedy this injustice without further delay.”

As each day passes, ethylene oxide threatens the health of many communities that continue to wait on EPA to fulfill its legal obligations under the Clean Air Act. Today’s letter provides notice that community and environmental groups cannot wait any longer—and will sue EPA to compel the agency to enact stronger, science-based standards that are protective of public health.

“Excuse after excuse has led to death after death and EPA refuses to act. The agency waited more than eight years after the first deadline, and now missed a second deadline to properly regulate ethylene oxide, even as it recognized that the chemical was causing cancer to people in communities across the country,” said Raul Garcia, legislative director of Healthy Communities at Earthjustice. ”Our letter intends to compel long overdue protective action from EPA, but should also serve as reminder to state and local officials that their inaction is leaving people exposed to severe risk of cancer and other illnesses in the very communities they serve. Cancer-causing chemicals must be properly regulated at every level of government immediately.”

“The EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment. They are failing my community and communities across the country with their inaction to regulate harmful air emissions from ethylene oxide facilities. It’s unacceptable that everyday community members have been forced to file this suit in order for the EPA to be accountable and update their standards as required by law. Our rights have been violated and the EPA must do its job,” said Celeste Flores, steering committee member with Clean Power Lake County.

Earthjustice filed the Notice of Intent on behalf of Rio Grande International Study Center, Clean Power Lake County, California Communities Against Toxics, Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Sierra Club.

CPLC, allies sue EPA for exempting half a billion tons of toxic coal ash from health protections

Karen Long MacLeod Campaign Updates , , , , , , , , , , ,
US Environmental Protection Agency building
The US Environmental Protection Agency faces a lawsuit for exempting at least half a billion tons of coal ash in nearly 300 landfills in 38 states from standards designed to protect people from cancer-causing chemicals. [Image: Skyhobo-Canva]

Clean Power Lake County and other environmental, civil rights, and community groups today filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in federal court for letting hundreds of toxic coal ash landfills off the hook from complying with important federal health and environmental protections.

Earthjustice mined databases buried in EPA archives and found that the agency exempted at least half a billion tons of coal ash in nearly 300 landfills in 38 states from standards designed to protect people from cancer-causing chemicals. The landfills are sited disproportionately in low-income communities and communities of color (see map). It is enough coal ash to fill train cars that could go around the earth two times.

Plaintiffs’ Attorney Mychal Ozaeta from Earthjustice said, “Power plant records reveal that about half of the toxic coal ash waste in the US is entirely exempt from any federal health protections. This is outrageous. The coal power industry is poisoning drinking water sources and the air we breathe while causing global warming.”

When the EPA adopted the first-ever rules in 2015 for toxic ash generated when burning coal, the agency excluded coal ash landfills and waste piles that stopped receiving new waste before the law went into effect. It also didn’t cover landfills at power plants that had already stopped producing power.

On August 1, more than 100 organizations in dozens of states and Puerto Rico wrote to the EPA urging them to stop exempting these abandoned landfills filled with coal ash (which is also known as “coal combustion residuals” or “CCR”).

The EPA has noted that the risks to humans associated with exposure to coal ash include “cancer in the skin, liver, bladder and lungs,” “neurological and psychiatric effects,” “cardiovascular effects,” “damage to blood vessels,” and “anemia.”

The lawsuit says what we know about the extent of water contamination from coal ash “is just the tip of the iceberg.”

The suit describes an Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice study of industry data: “Groundwater contamination exceeding federal health-based standards was found at 76% of the regulated CCR [coal combustion residuals] landfills. Regulated landfills are newer and more likely to be lined than the older landfills EPA exempted from the CCR rule. Thus, the exempted inactive CCR landfills are likely to be releasing even higher levels of toxic contaminants.”

The lawsuit states, “Coal-fired power plants generate one of the largest toxic solid waste streams in the United States. In this voluminous waste stream are large quantities of heavy metals and metal compounds such as arsenic, boron, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lead, lithium, mercury, molybdenum, radium, selenium, and thallium.”

Nonprofit legal organization Earthjustice filed the lawsuit in US District Court in Washington, DC, 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), Sierra Club, Clean Power Lake County (Illinois), and Environmental Integrity Project.

Among the hundreds of landfills the EPA has exempted from their protections is NRG Energy’s Waukegan Generating Station, where an unregulated coal ash fill has been contaminating groundwater since at least 2010.

“For years we have fought hard for our community to be protected, for our community to be respected and for our community to be seen,” said Dulce Ortiz, co-chair of Clean Power Lake County. “For starters, this can be done by ensuring the EPA protects our community by addressing the coal ash landfill that sits on our lakefront. Minority and economically disadvantaged communities are disproportionately burdened by pollution and the Waukegan community is no different. The EPA must do what it was intended to do, to protect our community residents and our environment.”

Sierra Club Attorney Bridget Lee said, “The continued storage of toxic coal ash in unlined landfills without groundwater monitoring flies in the face of EPA’s own science and risk assessments and threatens fenceline communities across the country. The agency must act now to close this dangerous loophole.”

According to the lawsuit, if the EPA had followed the law (the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act), “basic safeguards would be in place for inactive CCR landfills that would keep coal ash toxins out of our drinking water, air, rivers, lakes, and streams, and require remediation at the scores of sites already known to be contaminating water at dangerous levels.”

Additional resources
Related case documents and news

CPLC: 2020 Highlights

Karen Long MacLeod Campaign Updates, Community News , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After the year we just had, the term “2020 vision” will never sound quite the same. 

2020 brought more than its share of tragedies and challenges, yet Clean Power Lake County (CPLC) had moments worth celebrating. We’re excited to share some of these moments with you because they highlight the many ways our supporters continue to show up to fight for environmental justice in Lake County. 

January 

  • January 6: CPLC joined Illinois Communities for Coal Ash Cleanup to comment on the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s draft rules for coal ash impoundments. 
  • January 6: The Waukegan City Council passed a resolution to support Illinois’ Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA). The resolution recognized that environmental risks and burdens fall disproportionately on communities of color—and that these burdens cumulatively contribute to climate change. CPLC supports CEJA as a solution to both environmental racism and climate change at the local level.
  • January 14: CPLC co-chair Celeste Flores traveled to Texas for EPA public hearings on the proposed Miscellaneous Organic Chemical Manufacturing rule. The proposed rule included regulations on ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions. Representatives of environmental justice organizations from across the nation attended the hearings. 
  • January 20: CPLC co-chair and Mano a Mano Executive Director Dulce Ortiz received a Drum Major Award from Waukegan Township. Announced on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the awards recognize people who stand up for human rights and civil rights in their personal and professional lives.
  • January 21: CPLC joined other members of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (ICJC) at a press conference to demand that legislators block Trump-backed fossil fuel bailouts. ICJC said the bailouts exacerbate climate change, pollution, and energy inequity.
  • January 21: The public finally learned that Medline Industries in Waukegan had initiated a temporary shutdown of EtO operations on December 13.
  • January 27: CPLC helped deliver 38,000 petitions from Illinois residents urging Gov. J.B. Pritzker to pass CEJA. Colin Byers of Waukegan spoke on our behalf. He was accompanied by Steering Committee members Rev. Eileen Shanley-Roberts, Eddie Sandoval, and Celeste Flores.
  • January 29: Gov. J.B. Pritzker mentioned clean energy as a priority during his State of the State address. (Let’s continue to urge the governor to act on this priority in 2021; see actions at the end of this post.)

February

  • February 4: Co-chair Celeste Flores attended the State of the Union address in Washington, D.C., as a guest of Sen. Tammy Duckworth to help shine a light on environmental justice and “raise awareness of the fact that these communities face public health challenges at alarming rates while too many in power look the other way.”
  • February 18: CPLC signed a joint organization letter calling on the EPA to reduce EtO and other emissions from chemical plants to decrease the risk of cancer.
  • February 21: Co-chair Dulce Ortiz spoke at an Illinois House Public Utilities Committee hearing, urging legislators to protect communities against the harmful impacts of continued fossil fuel bailouts by passing CEJA and growing an equitable clean energy economy.

March

April  

May

August

  • August 11: CPLC joined national environmental justice organizations in sending a letter to the EPA opposing attempts to undermine the independent scientific standard for EtO.
  • August 12-13: Ten CPLC volunteers delivered public comments at the first of two sets of coal ash hearings hosted by the Illinois Pollution Control Board. 

September

October

  • October 7: Anticipating that CEJA might come up for a vote during the scheduled veto session, CPLC partnered with ICJC to create a video with our perspective on the need for CJEA.  Although the veto session was cancelled, the video remains a strategic tool to help move legislators during the next session.
  • October 31: As of this date, 1,712 people had signed a joint Sierra Club/Faith in Place/Eco-Justice Collaborative/CARE petition calling for strong coal ash rules. More than 310 petitions contained personalized messages.

November

December

Last, but not least

  • CPLC, partnering with the Illinois Environmental Council Education Fund, launched the “Support CPLC” fundraising campaign. Proceeds will help us ramp up public work to transition northeastern Lake County toward a clean, sustainable future and to fight environmental injustice in our community. As of today, we are more than halfway toward our $30K goal. To support CPLC, please make a gift here.

2021 vision

We predict that CEJA will pass in 2021—with your help! So we must tell our elected officials to pass CEJA now!

We have much justice work to do this year. Despite 2021’s disturbing start, we look forward to continuing this work, together, to create a more livable, more just world.  

CPLC Members Call for Stronger Coal Ash Rules

Karen Long MacLeod Campaign Updates , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It is part of Clean Power Lake County’s DNA to support state action on toxic coal ash ponds.  So when the Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB) held its August hearing on proposed rules for the Coal Ash Pollution Prevention Act, we were there to call for stronger rules. 

Why was that important? Because the groundbreaking Coal Ash Pollution Prevention Act provided an important framework for addressing toxic coal ash waste (see CPLC Celebrates as Governor Signs Milestone Coal Ash Cleanup Bill Into Law) and a rulemaking process. However, it did not establish enforcement standards. Instead, it tasked the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) with drafting the actual rules for enforcing the law. 

The August hearing was IEPA’s first opportunity to testify in defense of its proposed rules. It also was the first time that industry representatives, environmental groups, and other public stakeholders could ask IEPA about the proposed rules.

Several Clean Power Lake County members—including folks who participated in IEPA coal ash listening sessions in Waukegan last September—made virtual statements during the public comment periods of the August hearing. 

Mary Mathews represents the League of Women Voters of Lake County, a coalition member of Clean Power Lake County. Mathews demanded strict measures for coal ash: “In order to protect the groundwater’s chemical integrity, rules for cleanup and closure of coal ash sites must provide permanent protection from coal ash pollution.”

She also stressed the importance of public participation in the decision-making process: “The public has the right to know about pollution levels, dangers to health and environment, and proposed policies and options. Accordingly, the rules should include expanded outreach and require that opportunities, materials, and documents be made available to non-English speaking stakeholders. Additionally, hearings should be held in easily accessible locations, at convenient times, and, when possible, in the area concerned.”

Leah Hartung, an intern for Clean Power Lake County, stressed that improper coal ash management makes drinking water unsafe: “Since groundwater monitoring began in 2010, the groundwater at the Waukegan power plant has been found 400 times to have the contaminants related to coal ash above allowable levels. This is unacceptable. Safe drinking water is a human right, not a privilege.”

When IPCB holds its September 29-October 1 hearing—its second and final hearing on the proposed coal ash rules—Clean Power Lake County members will be there once again. We will stress the importance of adopting the strongest possible rules to protect us and residents of other communities burdened by coal ash pollution. 

Here’s how you can help: Email your comments to Clerk of the Board Don Brown by October 15.

Want background information to use to prepare written comments? Download Coal Ash Rulemaking Document by Prairie Rivers Network and Coal Ash Backgrounder by Earthjustice.

Illinois has the highest concentration of coal ash impoundments in the country.

There are two unlined coal ash ponds at the NRG Energy coal-fired power plant on Waukegan’s lakefront.

CPLC Environmental Justice Rally: Highlights

Karen Long MacLeod Campaign Updates, Community News, Events , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Activists representing Waukegan’s immigrant, low-income, and working-class families came together for a rally on June 22, 2019, united in the hope that achieving social and environmental justice will help them build a healthier, more sustainable community.

Here are some highlights from speeches given at the rally.

Edgar Sandoval: Environmental justice

Environmental justice is a movement that seeks to broaden the social assumptions we have about what the environment is and who can be an environmentalist. Historically, mainstream environmental groups have framed the environment as something that existed over there, in nature preserves and national parks. Many people who do environmental justice work have reframed the environment to consider three arenas: where we live, where we work, and where we play.

Championed primarily by African Americans, Latinxs, Asians, Pacific Islanders and Native Americans, the environmental justice movement addresses a statistical fact: People who live, work and play in the US’s most polluted environments are commonly people of color, immigrants, and living in impoverished conditions. Environmental justice advocates have shown that this is no accident. Communities of color, which are often poor, are routinely targeted to host facilities that have negative environmental impacts—say, a landfill, a dirty industrial plant or a truck depot. The statistics provide clear evidence of what the movement rightly calls environmental racism.

Environmental justice is about environmental racism. To address one requires addressing the other. Race is the commonsense ideology that explains difference based on biology. Racism is the exercise of unequal power relations on the basis of racial ideologies. In other words, racism is about power.

The US EPA is addressing five sites in the city of Waukegan through its Superfund program, which allows the EPA to clean up contaminated sites and forces parties responsible for the contamination to either perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-led cleanup work. Three sites are listed on the National Priorities List: Johns-Manville Corp. (a former asbestos manufacturing plant that operated from the 1920s to the 1980s) and Outboard Marine Corp.—both of which are along Waukegan’s lakefront—and Yeoman Creek Landfill. The other two sites—North Shore Gas North and South plants—are being addressed under EPA’s Superfund Alternative Sites program.

These various hazards indicate that the residents of Waukegan experience cumulative exposure to a range of toxins, which means that the effects of this accumulation of chemicals is not additive but exponential. This means that the harmful effects (feeling sick, for example) of one chemical are made a lot worse by the introduction of other chemicals into your body.

Andrew Rehn: Coal ash

I work for Prairie Rivers Network, a nonprofit based in Champaign that works to protect water, heal land, and inspire change in Illinois. Some of you may be familiar with coal ash. It’s the byproduct of burning coal. Coal itself has trace elements of toxic heavy metals, and those trace elements end up getting concentrated in the coal ash, which is then stored in large holding ponds.

At the Waukegan power plant just a few miles from here, coal ash has been produced for decades over the operation and is stored in two huge ponds. Worse, coal ash has also been historically dumped across the site in unmarked areas.

Last year, a report we released in partnership with the Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice and Sierra Club showed that 22 of the 24 coal-fired power plants that we examined had groundwater above health-based thresholds.

The Coal Ash Pollution Prevention Act, Senate Bill 9, will force polluters to prove that they have the money to pay for cleaning up coal ash by requiring financial assurances. It funds the Illinois EPA to regulate coal ash with fees from polluters. It ensures that the public has a voice in the coal ash pond closure process. And it prioritizes environmental justice communities for cleanup.

We also won a major lawsuit, which began in 2012, that will hold NRG Energy’s subsidiary liable for the pollution at four of their coal-fired power plants, including Waukegan.

We’ve had a lot of good news, but there’s still more work to be done. Our coal ash bill is going to be drafted into rules—and the devil is in the details. We’re going to need continued grassroots support to ensure our bill becomes a good rule. And the lawsuit itself isn’t over—legal matters are never that simple. NRG’s subsidiary is found liable for their pollution. The next legal battle is remedy. We’re going to work to ensure that the coal ash is removed and stored in a safe location. I’m hopeful that we’re on the right track to solving coal ash in Illinois

Guadalupe Bueno: Coal ash

Canoeing with other Eco-Ambassadors last summer, we saw coal ash leaching into the beautiful Vermilion River, visibly discoloring the water and staining the sandstone.

In Vermilion, the coal-fired generating station was retired in 2011. The company fulfilled the minimum requirements for capping the three coal ash ponds, which are located feet from the river itself. Within five years, those ponds began leaching into the river, poisoning a scenic waterway that supports fish, animals, and farms as it flows into the Illinois River.

Seeing the Vermilion river made me realize that this could occur in Waukegan, as well. The NRG plant is located on the shore of Lake Michigan, which supplies our drinking water.

Daniela Lopez: Ethylene oxide

The most recent threats of breathing ethylene oxide (EtO) are the most recent example of environmental injustices being played out not only in our state but across the nation.

When EtO was identified as a concern in Willowbrook (Sterigenics)—a 77 percent white suburb with an average per capita income of more than $71,000 a year—US EPA officials met with residents almost immediately. They began monitoring air three months later and put a seal the plant three months after that.

In Waukegan (Medline Industries)—where the neighborhoods most affected are only 25 percent white and have a per capita income of about $14,000—residents learned about the dangerous chemical in the air from a newspaper article in November when our elected officials were informed of the elevated levels in August. Residents are still waiting for the US EPA and the Illinois EPA to act.

If you have been following these government agencies, you know that we have received the ambient air testing results for the first phase of testing. Unfortunately the results confirmed our suspicions that the levels of EtO are on par with those found around the Sterigenics facility in Willowbrook, and at the highest 500 times higher than the EPA’s actionable limit for EtO (50,000 higher than the levels linked to an increase in rates of cancer). This is also the location closest to Alice’s Discovery Academy, a daycare center for children 6 weeks to 12 years old, and the Landings at Amhurst Lake, a large apartment complex.

Celeste Flores: Clean Energy Jobs Act

The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition is working to expand on the success of the Future Energy Jobs Act, advocating for more urgent active at the state level.

Our partner, Faith In Place Action Fund, is working to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Act. This legislation would make Illinois a national clean energy leader by bringing the state to 100% renewable energy, a carbon-free grid by 2030, and a significantly cleaner transportation sector, creating jobs and economic opportunity throughout Illinois.

The Clean Energy Jobs Act also would:

  • Generate more than $30 billion in new infrastructure and thousands of jobs in the state.
  • Create an equitable distribution of economic benefits for communities that stand to gain the most through Clean Jobs Workforce Hubs and Clean Energy Empowerment Zones.
  • Increase investments and incentives for clean transportation and electric vehicle charging.
  • Grant more residents access to popular cost-saving community solar programs

The Clean Energy Jobs Act will ensure an equitable energy transition that benefits all of Illinois and doesn’t leave communities like Waukegan behind.

CPLC Celebrates Passage of Landmark Legislation to Clean Up Coal Ash

Karen Long MacLeod Campaign Updates, Community News , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Coal ash pollution seeps into the Vermilion River in central Illinois. [Prairie Rivers Network photo]

Clean Power Lake County joined a dozen statewide and regional partner organizations on May 28, 2019, in celebrating the passage of SB9, The Coal Ash Pollution Prevention Act, by the Illinois Legislature. The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. J.B. Pritzker for signature.

The groundbreaking bill addresses the many waste pits filled with coal ash, the toxic byproduct of burning coal, located all over the state:

  • Creates a regulatory framework to ensure polluters, not taxpayers, pay for needed closure and cleanup.
  • Guarantees public participation and transparency around cleanups for affected communities.
  • Provides the Illinois EPA the funds it needs to properly oversee closure and cleanup.
  • Requires Illinois to put in place standards for coal ash impoundments that are at least as protective as federal coal ash rule requirements, with additional protections against dust and water pollution.

Illinois — which has the highest concentration of coal ash impoundments in the country — now is the third state in the country to pass legislation providing significant coal ash protections above and beyond federal requirements. Virginia and North Carolina also are addressing coal ash through state-level legislation.

The NRG Energy coal-fired power plant on Waukegan’s lakefront has two unlined coal ash ash ponds.

“The passage of SB9 out of the general assembly is a historic step forward for environmental justice communities across the state, like Waukegan,” said Dulce Ortiz, co-leader of Clean Power Lake County. “Environmental justice communities still have a long fight to assure community members have the basic human right of breathing clean air and drinking clean water. We call on Gov. Pritzker to prioritize the voices of a community like Waukegan and protect them from polluters like NRG Energy.”

“The passage of SB9 is a historical win for environmental justice communities throughout our state,” said Celeste Flores, with the Faith In Place Action Fund and co-leader of Clean Power Lake County. “People of faith across Illinois applaud the leadership of our elected leaders in the Senate and House for taking action on coal ash contamination of our land and water and implore the general assembly to continue to hold polluters accountable for injustice, oppression, and environmental degradation.”

The Illinois EPA has found groundwater contamination from coal ash waste sites dating back to 2009. A 2018 report from environmental groups Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice, Prairie Rivers Network and Sierra Club analyzing data collected by ash dump owners under the federal coal ash rule found that 22 of 24 of Illinois’ reporting coal ash dump sites have unsafe levels of toxic pollutants in the groundwater.

We thank the many Lake County elected officials who supported this important legislation: State Senators Melinda Bush, Terry Link, and Julie Morrison; and State Representatives Rita Mayfield, Joyce Mason, Dan Didech, Mary Edly-Allen, Bob Morgan, and Sam Yingling.

We also thank everyone who signed petitions, made phone calls, and visited your elected officials. We are stronger together.