EAST SIDE — Outraged Southeast Side environmental justice activists are pushing back against a political maneuver that could benefit a controversial project city officials said would violate Chicago’s ban on mining.
Representatives from Southeast Side community groups criticized an ordinance from alds. Peter Chico (10th) and Gilbert Villegas (36th) to change city zoning law to allow mining in certain areas. The legislation was introduced into City Council on Wednesday.
Organizers believe it could be an avenue to help the Invert project, a years-old endeavor from cement company Ozinga to build a 6-million-square-foot underground mining warehouse on a former steel site near 112th Street and the Calumet River.
The project largely stalled last year after zoning officials determined it would require mining, the Sun-Times’ Brett Chase reported.
Chico did not respond to Block Club’s request for comment. Villegas called Invert a “huge economic development opportunity for the city,” according to the Sun-Times.
Activists said the ordinance affirms that Chicago needs stronger laws to protect areas like the Southeast Side, which is overburdened by pollution and heavy industry. These organizers also mobilized to block troubled metal scrapper General Iron’s effort to move its operations to Southside Recycling in East Side.
“This is wrong, and this is why we need to get to the root of the problem, which is broken land use and zoning practices in the city of Chicago, and we need to address the impact of pollution in our neighborhoods,” said Gina Ramirez, the Midwest Region Lead for Environmental Health at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“As a resident and mother myself, it’s just so shocking that I’m here again, what seems to be a yearly occurrence of a new industry coming into my neighborhood that can have disproportionate health impacts.”
Southeast Side residents have criticized the Invert project since its inception, saying it would endanger people living in the community. They’ve long argued it would involve excavating a mine in the densely populated Southeast Side and using explosives.
The site is near schools and homes, as well as natural areas such as Big Marsh Park and Eggers Grove.
Ozinga has repeatedly denied the work would involve mining, saying it would excavate to locate the warehouse 250 to 350 feet below a brownfield site, the Sun-Times has reported.
Oscar Sanchez, a member of Southeast Environmental Task Force who challenged Chico in the 10th Ward election last year, said the alderman shouldn’t see the Southeast Side as an opportunity for industrial interests looking for prime areas to develop.
“Our families and loved ones are tired of routine policies that leave our community out from decisions that impact us, and most importantly, that sell us out for industry,” Sanchez said. “Ald. Chico, will this continue to be a sacrifice zone, because who does mining benefit?”
Sanchez said there are also plans for Southeast Side environmental groups to meet with Chico to discuss the ordinance and other efforts to protect the area from environmental threats. They are waiting to hear from Chico and his team, he said.
“It’s disheartening to continue to remind [Ald. Chico] that [neighborhoods] like ours grapple with ongoing battles against dirty industry,” Sanchez said. “I want people to think about this. If a mine was proposed in Lincoln Park, or in the South Loop, that would be shut down immediately. There would be no question. People would say, ‘That’s absurd.’”
Amalia Nieto-Gomez, executive director of the Alliance of the Southeast, said pushing back on the legislation is important for all Chicago residents.
“We know it’s to allow Invert, but this will affect the whole city. And I don’t think anyone in their right mind will want to have a mining operation next door, whether that be on the Southeast Side, the North Side, the Northwest Side, Lincoln Park,” Nieto-Gomez said.
“So I think what needs to be clear to Chicagoans is that this is a proposal to allow mining throughout the whole city of Chicago, but we know it’s, in particular, going to hit us hard and more directly and sooner because there’s already a proposal.”
Southeast Siders filed a complaint with federal housing officials in 2020, alleging decades of racist city policies pushed polluters into their communities. The complaint was sparked by the General Iron controversy.
As part of a settlement between Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration and federal housing officials, city officials are supposed to complete a cumulative impact assessment to identify neighborhoods most impacted by industry and pollution. That assessment will help inform a cumulative impact ordinance.
That work has been delayed for months, said Robert Weinstock, an attorney for the Southeast Environmental Taskforce and the Southeast Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke. The city’s chief sustainability officer and the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health were supposed to publish a handbook of their findings for the ordinance in the fall, Weinstock said.
“We are really hopeful that this ordinance will happen because this would be the first of its kind in the Midwest,” Ramirez said. “It’s something that’s desperately needed here in Chicago and desperately needed here on the Southeast Side. We’re really Ground Zero for pollution and environmental racism.”
Block Club’s Maxwell Evans contributed.
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