MCKINLEY PARK — A Cook County Circuit Court judge has preliminarily approved a $1.2 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit against a controversial McKinley Park asphalt plant that neighbors alleged caused noxious odors and polluted the area.
The settlement, agreed upon in early November, applies to any resident who lives within a half-mile radius of MAT Asphalt, 2055 W. Pershing Road. The facility is situated across the street from McKinley Park and makes hot-mix asphalt, among other industrial products.
The original complaint, filed in 2020 by resident Tanisha Rodriguez, alleged that fumes and odors from the facility created a nuisance for neighbors. The lawsuit sought damages for any resident living within a mile radius of the facility, and included testimony from Rodriguez and other neighbors, who said the odors smelled like sulfur and ammonia, interrupted their sleep and prevented them from opening windows or going outside.
With the settlement agreement, lawyers from the Detroit-based law office of Liddle Sheets Coulson P.C. are now requesting that neighbors interested in the payout file a claim form to receive compensation from the settlement fund. The form must be postmarked by Jan. 22.
Further details on eligibility and the claim process can be found on the law firm’s website.
The settlement also requires that MAT Asphalt make approximately $900,000 worth of improvements to the facility by April 30. Those improvements include a “blue smoke control system” atop its hot-mix silo, a dust control plan, a rule that all trucks leaving the facility must use tarp covers and the planting of 25 additional trees on the site, among other changes.
MAT Asphalt has denied all wrongdoing, and residents who opt-in to the settlement will waive their right to sue MAT Asphalt in a separate legal action. The settlement states that MAT Asphalt agreed to the settlement to avoid the costs of protracted litigation.
A spokesman for MAT Asphalt reiterated that the plant’s emissions are below regulatory limits. In a statement, co-owner Michael Tadin, Jr. said the company settled with neighbors to avoid the costs of protracted litigation.
“We reiterate what the settlement states: MAT Asphalt vigorously denies all allegations of wrongdoing or liability,” Tadin said in the statement. “Rather than engage in unproductive litigation, we will continue to focus on delivering more of the cost-effective, industry-leading service that we have provided to the city of Chicago since 2018.”
Since its opening in 2018, the hot-mix facility has been a flashpoint among neighbors and environmental activists, who said they were blindsided when they didn’t receive warning that it would apply for a pollution permit.
In the years since, the facility has maintained close ties with the city despite continuing to draw the ire of nearby residents, who have framed its operation within the context of the environmental justice movement.
A 2020 study showed that environmental polluters are often located in neighborhoods with larger populations of color, particularly Latino populations. The population of McKinley Park on the city’s Southwest Side is approximately 55 percent Latino and 30 percent Asian, according to the Chicago Agency for Metropolitan Planning.
Earlier this year, the city awarded MAT Asphalt $141 million in contracts to provide asphalt for road repaving on the same day the Chicago Department of Public Health finalized a settlement with the company, requiring it to pay $20,000 in fines and institute other environmental improvements at the site.
The required improvements were similar to those mandated in the recent settlement with neighbors, and include odor condensers and a system to control “blue smoke,” which is a common emission from asphalt plants.
The plant is located about a mile east of the proposed migrant tent camp in Brighton Park that the state nixed last week after a report raised environmental concerns about mercury and other chemicals in the soil at the site.
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