CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Residents of Pilsen and environmental activists called on all levels of government to do something about the Sims Metal Management scrap metal site where there was a fire over the weekend.
“This Sims fire is not the problem; it’s a symptom,” said University of Illinois-Chicago instructor Phillip Boda, who added that the fight over Sims Metal Management is about people, not about pollution.
Tanya Lozano, a longtime Pilsen resident and CEO of Healthy Hood Chicago, said she and fellow residents are victims of environmental racism and have tried to work with the city, state and federal environmental agencies.
“All they keep doing is giving us the runaround,” she said. “All they keep saying is, ‘We’re going to do an assessment,’ but meanwhile, we’re still breathing dirty, nasty air that’s making us sick, including our children.”
Lozano said Sims Metal Management needs to be shut down.
“Instead of operating like business as usual after you’ve had a fire, we want the company shut down until we get the data,” she said. “Not until the end of March, or when it’s convenient for that company to give it to us. We want it now, and if we don’t get it, we’ll shut that company down ourselves.”
Theresa McNamara, chair of the Southwest Environmental Alliance, said politicians need to get involved to help residents and not just come around and ask for votes at election time.
“We don’t want to die,” McNamara said. “I don’t want to have cancer. My husband has it now. The last thing we all want is cancer so, please, I wish the IEPA, the city and the EPA would wake up and do their job.”
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) has three children and lives a few blocks from the scrap metal company. He said no one should be subjected to the environmental injustices that Pilsen residents are.
“When we ask — and we’ve been working with EPA, I think you’ve heard from all of us — we’ve been more than patient, but what we’re hearing is just the runaround,” Sighco-Lopez said. “We get all sorts of excuses. In the meantime, our kids are breathing these chemicals.”
Michael Cailas, an associate professor at UIC’s School of Public Health, said he’s concerned about the possibility of there being a larger incident than the one that happened Saturday, as well as the possibility that residents would not be quickly notified.
“I think politicians have to get together and think of emergency plans,” he said.
Cailas said there’s a way to notify people when dangerous weather is on the way. There should be a system in place to notify people who live near facilities that deal with hazardous materials when there’s an incident that could affect their health, he added.
For its part, Sims sent WBBM Newsradio the same response it gave after the weekend fire: that it was quickly dealt with and that the company apologizes for any concern Saturday’s fire may have caused residents.
Sims has air monitoring equipment around its facility, and it’s not required to turn in data until the end of March. The EPA, though, said it has asked Sims over the past few days to turn around that air monitoring data more quickly.
“It is extremely concerning that our community continuously has had to face environmental injustices by SIMS Metal Management," said Aida Flores, who is running against Ald. Sigcho-Lopez. "They need to be held accountable and I know that anyone taking any support from SIMS in any way cannot fight for true environmental justice.”
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