Pilsen Neighbors Want City To Delay Giving Permit To Metal Shredder

PILSEN — Southwest Side neighbors and environmental activists are again calling on the city to delay approving a permit for a controversial metal shredder facility in Pilsen.

Sims Metal Management has applied to renew the operation permit for its Pilsen facility, according to city documents. But its critics gathered Monday at City Hall to call on officials to delay approving the permit, saying Sims has “one of the worst records of pollution in Chicago” and a history of violations.

The scrapper has for decades shredded and recycled metal materials, vehicles and major appliances at its Pilsen location, 2500 S. Paulina St.

But neighbors have long spoken out against it, pointing out it is near three schools — Benito Juarez Community Academy, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School and Whittier Dual Language Magnet School — and in a neighborhood classified as an “environmental justice area” by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

After Sims applied to renew its permit, the city created a draft for the permit and posted it online so people can submit feedback. Comments can be emailed to [email protected] through Nov. 7.

Through city law, the company is allowed to continue operating under its existing permit until the city makes a decision about its new permit, said health department spokesperson Grace V. Johnson Adams.

The company initially applied to renew its permit in Nov. 2021 and since then, the Illinois Attorney General, the Illinois EPA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the city’s Department of Public Health have required additional materials, including the installation of five air monitors, Johnson Adams said. Sims submitted an updated permit application in April and the city issued a deficiency letter in July to address outstanding issues.

After Nov. 7, the city will review Sims’ permit application and all public comments submitted since November 2021, Johnson Adams said.

Sims has a controversial history: It has been cited and was fined by the EPA in 2018, and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office sued it in 2021. It was required to install filtration equipment after the lawsuit, but it has not yet finished doing that, neighbors said Monday.

“The city wants to give them a permit before we can know that they’re operating safely with kids and families right in the heart of Pilsen,” Brian McKeon, a member of Lucha Por La Villita, said at Monday’s press conference. His group is one of the organizations pushing for environmental justice with the Southwest Environmental Alliance.

“It seems ill-advised to issue them a permit before the filtering equipment that’s been required has been installed and shown to be efficacious.”

In December, Sims Metal will finish installing “substantial updated environmental controls for our metal shredder which will improve air quality even more and minimize future emissions,” said Sims spokesperson Matthew Butterfield in an emailed statement.

The company has spent years working with the city and state to “improve the environmental performance” of its Pilsen site, and as a result, was given a clean bill of health from the federal EPA, he said.

The city’s Department of Public Health and Mayor Brandon Johnson should look at the company’s troubling history and the risks it poses to Pilsen neighbors, who are already overburdened by pollution, neighbors said.

“The mayor [and] the people at City Hall, these people think that our neighborhood is a dump. It’s not,” said organizer Gregory Galluzzo.

According to city law, the city’s Department of Public Health needs to evaluate the company’s history and may deny or refuse a permit if the evaluation shows it violated any federal, state or local laws, regulations or ordinances within the past three years.

Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot previously denied a permit to metal scrapper Southside Recycling — formally known as General Iron — citing the company’s history of pollution problems.

In an online statement earlier this month, George Malamis, Sims Metal Management director of operations, said the permit renewal “will not change our focus on earnest partnerships with our neighbors and our cooperation with all federal, state, and local agencies to meet and exceed operational expectations.”

If monitoring data collected over the last year represent typical levels, emissions from Sims would not cause short- or long-term health effects for the community near the facility, Johnson Adams said, citing the EPA. The federal agency and the city will continue to require air monitoring.

For years, neighbors and activists have called on the city to shut down metal shredding and other heavily polluting facilities in Southwest Side neighborhoods. In a study released last year, the city found some of these neighborhoods are the ones hit hardest by pollution.

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