(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The city of Chicago has sided with environmental activists and residents of the Southeast Side in rejecting an application for a controversial scrap metal facility.
The city’s Department of Public Health on Friday said it has denied the permit request from the company formerly known as General Iron. City health officials cite potential adverse changes in air quality and quality of life for the decision.
This follows a nearly three-year-long campaign to stop the project, after the Lightfoot Administration gave it preliminary approval back in 2019.
General Iron had operated a metal-scrapping facility in affluent Lincoln Park. Opponents of its move to the Southeast Side said the project would unfairly burden poorer people of color there.
To that end, Health Commissioner Allison Arwady said a Health Impact Assessment confirmed these fears.
“We are committed to protecting and enhancing the health, environment, and quality of life for all Chicagoans,” she said in a prepared statement. “In an already vulnerable community, the findings from the HIA combined with the inherent risks of recycling operations and concerns about the company’s past and potential noncompliance are too significant to ignore.”
Environmentalists hailed the decision.
“The community has been working relentlessly to have their voices heard,” Gina Ramirez, Midwest Outreach Manager for the National Resources Defense Council, told WBBM Newsradio. “Today is just one step in a very long process for gaining justice for a community that has been left behind for far too long.”
A statement from Reserve Management Group blames “false narratives and misinformation” for “demonizing” the business. The company said it will challenge the decision.
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