(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A community activist is hoping a decision by a steelmaking company on the Southeast Side is a good sign for the community.
Finkl Steel had been getting community pushback on its application to add three more furnaces to its plant on 93rd Street in the Burnside neighborhood. This week, the company and the Illinois EPA announced Finkl had withdrawn that application.
Sam Corona, an organizer for the Alliance of the Southeast, said he takes this as a potential sign the company is “trying to become a good neighbor.”
There has been a steelmaking plant on the current Finkl site for more than 100 years, but Corona says people in Burnside feel like prisoners in their own homes because of the pollution.
“When we have an industrial polluter that, you know, looks to increase pollution, or another one coming in, that’s a little nail in our coffin when we talk about life expectancy,” he said.
Corona stresses: “It’s not that we’re against industry. We don’t want industry to be attacking the quality of life of the residents.”
Residents in that area of the city feel like they are living in an industrial sandbox, he says. Another high-profile industrial operation, General Iron, has been trying to open a scrap metal recycling plant.
“How much does a community have to sacrifice for the few jobs that constantly keep poisoning the community?” Corona asked.
WBBM Newsradio has reached out to Finkl Steel for comment.
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