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Little Village community further angered after leaked report reveals negligence of 2020 smokestack demolition

Hilco
Former U.S. Congressman Luis Gutierrez was joined last Saturday by Little Village residents who hold a poster of a picture taken at the time of the Hilco demolition.
Mike Krauser

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Some activists in the Little Village neighborhood aren't surprised that a leaked Chicago inspector general report found that the 2020 demolition of a smokestack at the former Hilco plant would be a "disaster."

The neighborhood was coated with dust and looked like images you see from dust storms out West.


The report said there were warnings from the Department of Public Health that the dust would be "unpreventable" and "almost cataclysmic." It found that city officials acted with "willful bureaucratic negligence."

"We know what happened, and we know the environmental damage that has been caused. It causes damage to our lungs. It causes damage to our respiratory system. It causes cancer. It causes death," said former Congressman Luis Gutierrez.

Activists are demanding that the IG report be published in Spanish. They want questions answered by city departments and want soil sampling and changes by the EPA.

The report was completed in 2021. The Lightfoot administration refused to make it public.

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