At a protest in front of Sims Metal Management Saturday, representatives of the Southwest Environmental Alliance coalition announced that the public meeting for the facility’s operating permit scheduled for Oct. 19 has been postponed until data about Sims’ alleged effect on air quality is released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Sims Metal is a scrap-metal recycling facility in Pilsen with a history of alleged environmental violations. Most recently, in October of 2021, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul sued the facility, alleging it emitted uncontrolled levels of volatile organic materials, which are harmful chemical compounds. Sims has applied for renewed operating permits from the state and city, both of which are ongoing.
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Saturday’s protest began at Benito Juarez Community Academy, 1450 W Cermak Rd., located less than half a mile away from Sims. About 50 attendees marched from the high school to Sims, carrying red signs stating “Sims Must Go!” and chanting “no justice, no peace.” Children wore gas masks, and people carried a tiny coffin with the words “Death By Pollution.”
“I want you to be very conscious what you’re breathing,” Rev. Emma Lozano, pastor of Lincoln United Methodist Church, said at the protest. “You smell that very, very strong odor … it smells horrible.”
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The Oct. 19 public meeting with the Chicago Department of Public Health was set to hear community comments on Sims’ operating permit application.
But during Saturday’s demonstration, Theresa McNamara, chairperson of the Southwest Environmental Alliance, delivered the news that the meeting would be postponed, to cheers from protesters.
“We’re trying to stall them as long as we can because we want to see a cumulative impact study,” McNamara said.
Its postponement comes in the wake of significant pushback from the community. Both Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, and McNamara, sent requests to CDPH that the department wait for the air quality data.
The Chicago Department of Public Health said in a statement Saturday that the department decided to defer the Oct. 19 meeting “in consultation with the community.” The department “had always intended” to consider this data in its final decision on the permit, according to the statement.
“We will continue to welcome input from residents in the surrounding community about their concerns around this facility or ideas they have for Sims as a good industrial neighbor,” CDPH said in the statement.
Air quality monitoring around Sims began on Sept. 23 pursuant to a mandate from the U.S. EPA to determine the facility’s compliance with the Clean Air Act. Sims is also required to test its emissions as part of a construction permit for pollution controls that the Illinois EPA greenlit this month.
Outside of these ongoing efforts, there are no reliable measurements of how much Sims emits, according to the U.S. EPA. Without this data, advocates say there can’t be a fair process as the Sims operating permit application is under consideration.
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Information from the monitors for Sept. 23 through the 30 is due to the U.S. EPA by Oct. 30 and will be released in November after a review period.
During Saturday’s event, Lozano demanded that the city reject Sims’ operating permit because of industries’ historic environmental burden on the neighborhood, including lead contamination in the soil and more than a century with a coal-burning plant.
Saturday’s march was announced at a public meeting at St. Paul Catholic Church on Sept. 29, when Lozano said the protest intended to send a simple message: Sims is not welcome in their neighborhood.
“The city and state call us ‘sacrificial communities,’ — they understand that we pay for the price for other communities to breath clean air, but they do nothing,” Lozano said Saturday.
Lozano also cited the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s investigation, which found that the city encouraged polluting industries to move from white areas to Black and Latino communities. HUD is threatening to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in funding as community members urge Mayor Lori Lightfoot to reach a resolution.
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“We say: No money for Chicago,” Lozano said.
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In response to Saturday’s demonstration, John Glyde, chief operating officer at Sims Metal, said in a statement that Sims is invested in “being a good community partner,” citing its investment in of emission controls and addition of air quality monitors. Both actions were required as part of state and federal regulatory actions.
During the protest, Sigcho-Lopez called on the state and city to delay granting any operating permits until there is “due process” through data reviewed by the U.S. EPA and a cumulative health assessment for the community.
“We are no longer a sacrifice zone, and the time to change this is now,” Sigcho-Lopez said.
Sigcho-Lopez wants to see the same result as the Southeast Side after the city rejected Reserve Management Group’s operating permit in February. RMG is another a large scrap metal recycling operation that closed down its facility in Lincoln Park before trying to open another on the Southeast Side.
“It is not safe on the Southeast Side, it wasn’t safe in Lincoln Park, it’s definitely not safe here,” Sigcho-Lopez told the Tribune Saturday. “So what we are asking is relocate.”
