Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration renewed an overdue operating permit Monday for a scrap metal shredder in Pilsen with a history of air pollution violations. It’s a major blow to residents who, for years, have raised concerns about the facility’s impact on their health.
“Everybody is very upset with the mayor. He’s lying that he’s going to improve health, the environment, and work with community organizations. He’s not doing that,” said Southwest Environmental Alliance chairperson Theresa Reyes McNamara Tuesday after speaking with several members. Pilsen was identified as a neighborhood overburdened by pollution in a citywide report published by the Johnson administration last year.
Sims Metal applied to renew the permit three years ago, shortly after Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul sued the company for failing to demonstrate it was mitigating air pollution at the 2500 S. Paulina St. facility. The company is in the process of installing pollution control equipment mandated by the state’s lawsuit.
An earlier lawsuit brought by the U.S. EPA required Sims to install five air pollution monitors around its Pilsen operation in 2022.
In a statement released Monday evening, the Chicago Department of Public Health said its decision to renew the permit heavily relied on data from these monitors that consistently showed “typical” emissions levels that would not cause short- or long-term health impacts on nearby residents.
The shredder is half a mile from Benito Juarez High School and across the street from a predominantly Latino community.
City officials have stressed that they completed their due diligence, administering several public comment periods and requesting additional information from Sims in addition to reviewing air quality data.
During a meeting with concerned community members earlier this month, Public Health Commissioner Olusimbo Ige said it took her department three years to award the permit because of this thoroughness.
As a result, Monday’s permit is largely retroactive, rubberstamping 2021 to 2024 operations. Per city rules, Sims is allowed to continue operating on this permit while the public health department reviews the company’s renewal permit to operate through 2027. It operated on an expired permit while the 2021 to 2024 permit was under review.
“The federal EPA has delivered our Pilsen facility a clean bill of health after extensive air monitoring, and we remain fully committed to continuing to achieve the City’s operational expectations,” said Sims West Region Operations Director Ryan Smith, who oversees the Pilsen facility, on Tuesday.
But nearby residents believe the shredder has yet to prove it’s a good neighbor.
Sims failed to apply for a modification permit before installing a polluting piece of machinery called a stationary shear around 2020. It was discovered by the EPA during a 2022 inspection.
The equipment was included in the permit renewal application, a move environmental justice activists characterize as dishonest and manipulative. They’ve been calling on the city to revoke the permit on those grounds.
At the very least, they would have liked to see the city wait to approve the permit until Sims finished installing the attorney general-mandated pollution control equipment and proved it worked.
“It seems like they’re almost bending over backward to make sure Sims got the permit rather than fulfilling their oversight and enforcement responsibilities,” said McKeon.
Competing scrap metal operator Southside Recycling — formerly General Iron — was also dismayed by the permit approval. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration denied its operating permit for a similar facility on the Southeast Side three years ago.
Southside Recycling’s parent company Reserve Management Group, has actively been fighting the city over the matter in court.
Their shredder, which is fully built and standing idle at East 116th Street along the Calumet River, already has the pollution control equipment that Sims is currently installing.
“There is no excuse for the City’s grossly disparate treatment of Sims’ antiquated facility and Southside Recycling’s modern new facility,” said a spokesperson for Southside Recycling shortly after the decision was announced Monday evening.
The city, however, has maintained that the permitting processes were fundamentally different. Sims sought to continue operations at an existing facility. RMG was applying to relocate its operations from Lincoln Park to the Southeast Side.
The permit is not an unconditional green light. Public Health Department Spokeswoman Grace Adams said the city will continue regular inspections of Sims and “any violations or risks identified will result in immediate corrective action to protect the community.”
