Marchers from the group Chicago Climate Action protest the Fisk Power Plant, which has been sued over allegations of pollution. (Photo by Troy T. Heinzeroth)

By Miriam Y. Cintrón

From her home in the Pilsen neighborhood, Leila Mendez can see smoke billowing from the top of Fisk Generating Station, a coalfired power plant that has been generating electricity since 1903. The smoke is particularly thick late at night as it streams from Fisk’s towering smokestack, said the lifelong Pilsen resident, who believes the air pollutants from the plant led to her being diagnosed with a phyllodes tumor — a rare form of breast cancer—in 1998.

Mendez, a member of the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO), said family members have suffered from ailments including thyroid cancer and emphysema, and she has heard of a disproportionate number of area people afflicted with asthma and other conditions — all of which she thinks may be attributable to emissions from Fisk, located at 1111 W. Cermak Rd., and Crawford Generating Station, 3501 S. Pulaski Rd., in nearby Little Village.

That black smoke and other violations led the U.S. Justice Department in August to file a civil complaint against Midwest Generation, an Edison International subsidiary that owns Fisk, Crawford, and four other coal plants in Waukegan, Joliet, Romeoville, and Pekin, alleging the company continues to violate the federal Clean Air Act.

The act states that companies with power plants built before 1970 do not have to comply with pollution standards so long as they did not start replacing major parts in order to extend the plants’ life. The idea was that older plants eventually would shut down and be replaced with newer ones with modern pollution control technology.

Filed on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the office of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the complaint alleges Midwest Generation has made major modifications to its plants without installing required pollution control equipment and that its sites emit large amounts of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and particulate matter. The company also is accused of exceeding opacity and particulate matter limits.

Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental health at the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago, explained that Illinois rules limit how black the smoke emitted from coal plants can be, as that indicates how much particulate matter is released into the air. For years, Midwest Generation violated state standards, he said, releasing fine particulate matter that can cause strokes as well as asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

Harvard study A 2001 Harvard University School of Public Health study attributed 2,800 asthma attacks, 550 emergency room visits, and 41 premature deaths to the Fisk and Crawford plants alone. The Illinois Attorney General’s “main desire is to make sure the plants are not breaking the law to the detriment of the communities surrounding the plants,” said spokesperson Robyn Ziegler.

Through the complaint, the federal and state governments are seeking civil penalties up to the maximum allowed under the law and are asking the U.S. District Court to order the company to install and operate required pollution control equipment at its plants.

Midwest Generation responded that it will continue its dialogue with the federal government to resolve the issue and pointed out that it already is addressing some of the issues cited in the civil suit as it works to comply with an agreement it made with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency in 2006. That deal “is one of the most stringent agreements in the nation,” Midwest Generation spokesperson Charley Parnell said.

So far, the company has accomplished the first phase of that agreement, having closed one of its units in Waukegan and installed mercury controls in all its plants, reducing mercury emissions by 80%. “Ours are among the first plants in the nation to be controlled for mercury,” Parnell said. He noted Midwest Generation now is designing and engineering controls to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 80% by 2012, and it plans to do the same to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 84% by 2018.

Many local environmental groups and activists have fought for years to have the plants cleaned up, and many plan to ensure the government follows through with what it has started. Late last month, the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Law and Policy Center, and Citizens Against Ruining the Environment filed a motion to join the lawsuit.

Urbaszewski said the groups want to be part of the discussions to make sure the government does not succumb to pressure to water down any rules. “We want the law to be enforced,” said Urbaszewski. “The
suit is a way to ensure there is no backsliding.”

Still, a settlement could be a favorable outcome as it could force Midwest Generation to install pollution controls more quickly, as opposed to a court battle that could drag on for years. Like those other organizations, PERRO has worked for several years to bring awareness to the issue, and the group’s Dorian Breuer said PERRO fully supports the suit.

Formed in 2002, PERRO opposes coal as a source of electricity and ultimately wants the plants to shut down. That position does not preclude the group from supporting measures to clean the plants up in the meantime, Breuer said.

He added that PERRO hopes the plants might one day be replaced by facilities that promote alternate, more environmentally friendly technology to generate power. To that end, PERRO and several other groups including the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Sierra Club Chicago, and Rainforest Action Network Chicago have formed Chicago Climate Action. Mendez noted Fisk’s emissions do not just affect the health of Illinois residents but that of people throughout the world. “We have to get this place closed,” she said.

For more information about PERRO, visit www.HowGreenIsChicago.org.