Sims Metal finished installing pollution control equipment last year at its scrap metal facility in Pilsen to address concerns about emissions, but residents say more still needs to be done to protect the community.
For years, members of the Lower West Side community have battled the metal recycling company over the regulation of its operation at 2500 S. Paulina St.
“It’s not something that you want to live in Pilsen and have your windows wide open,” said Adriana Gutierrez-Diaz, 58, who lives two blocks from the site. “It just seems to me that there’s a lot going on that we don’t even know, but we’re feeling it and seeing it.”
Pilsen residents are demanding that Gov. JB Pritzker’s office stop the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency from moving forward on an operating permit for the facility until more testing has been done.
On a recent brisk Saturday, a crowd gathered outside the governor’s office in downtown Chicago, many wearing white hazmat suits and gas masks.
Half of them carried posters with red stop signs that read “SIMS MUST GO.” Their chanting cut through the quiet early morning.
Although the facility has seen improvement since installing the new equipment required by the state, many residents are wary of any promises made by Sims.
“We have seen them being a bad actor continuously. There is not enough oversight, we want to see stricter testing,” said Zitlalli Paez, a Pilsen resident who is the board president of the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization.
Sims Metal, meanwhile, says the facility no longer poses health risks, arguing that it has taken the appropriate compliance measures.
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“Our environmental protections are now going even further with a fully enclosed shredder along with advanced capture and control technology that significantly reduces potential emissions and strengthens long-term air quality protections,” Michael Trupin, director of air and environmental permitting and compliance programs at Sims Metal, told the Tribune in a statement.
A long history
The history of the Pilsen facility, which has operated since the 1990s, has been defined by heavy neighborhood resistance and environmental violations.
In 2021, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office sued Sims Metal, saying it wasn’t limiting air pollution at the Pilsen site, and the company was required to install pollution control equipment. The U.S Environmental Protection Agency had previously fined the facility for $225,000 in 2018 over air pollution violations.
After some delay, the facility finished installing the equipment in April last year. Sims Metal also was required to conduct stack testing to show that it met its emissions standards and submit the results to the IEPA for its operating permit application.
IEPA spokesperson Lori Harlan told the Tribune that the agency is still reviewing Sims’ application.
From looking at the testing results, Paez pointed out that the upgraded facility still emits heavy metals, including arsenic, chromium and manganese.
Residents also say testing needs to be done at the facility under a wider array of operating conditions.
Brian McKeon, a member of Southwest Environmental Alliance, said the stack testing only examined when the facility processed a mix of about half end-of-life vehicles and half light metals. He said the testing also should examine when the facility is processing different scrap mixes and volumes, which could happen during normal operations.
“We want to make sure that the testing that is done is robust and complete, and leaves no kind of unanswered question,” McKeon said.
According to the Sims spokesperson, federal officials have said the site does not present short- or long-term health risks to the surrounding community, and state and local officials have previously issued the required operating permits.
The facility processes and recycles scrap metals year-round into raw materials for manufacturing uses. It’s located less than a mile from several local schools.
Chris Bednash, who has lived in Pilsen for 13 years, is eight blocks from the facility. He stays involved in his neighborhood’s community gardens, where he has learned from other residents about the pollution in the soil and air around the area.
“Sometimes it can be a little bit imperceptible because it’s just there, and there’s so much of the built environment that we’re used to being around that we never even really ask ourselves what it is. Are they still polluting?” Bednash said.
Permit complications
Residents were disappointed when Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration renewed the facility’s overdue city operating permit in 2024, drawing backlash from residents who complained that it wasn’t strict enough.
At the time, the Chicago Department of Public Health said its decision to renew the permit heavily relied on data from five air monitors the company had to install after a previous federal lawsuit. Those monitors consistently showed “typical” emissions levels that would not cause short- or long-term health impacts on nearby residents.
Pilsen residents hope the draft permit from the state will contain tighter regulations.
“Once we feel comfortable that the permit is strict enough, that’s what we want: A strong permit process and a strong permit actually being applied and enforced,” Paez said.
The IEPA said once a draft is released, a public hearing will be held to gather input before the permit’s final approval. Harlan did not specify a date for the draft’s release.
Michelle Dieschbourg, 38, who works in advertising technology, also joined her neighbors protesting outside Pritzker’s office. She has lived in Pilsen for the past six years with her 4-year-old son.
After moving to the neighborhood, she uses raised beds to plant vegetables on her home’s roof because she doesn’t trust the soil. Dieschbourg also has installed an air monitor on her building and discovered the air quality is worse than much of the rest of the city.
How the state permit is resolved matters deeply to her family, she said.
“I think it’s really disappointing to see that they’ve failed inspections and failed to meet certain criteria for a long time, and they haven’t been held accountable,” Dieschbourg said. “I think it’s important that we hold people accountable, hold businesses accountable in the community. It shouldn’t be just after the fact that the pollution has already escaped.”
Jerry Wu is a freelancer.