The Sponge: May 12–18
Welcome to The Sponge, the place to soak up a week’s worth of environmental news.
After months of protest, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot formally delayed the opening of a new scrap shredder in one of the most polluted areas in the country.
What makes it the most polluted?
The Southeast side of Chicago has been called a “toxic donut” due to the overwhelming presence of facilities like landfills, sewage plants, and paint factories. When it was announced that a new scrap shredder would be moved into the neighborhood, protests began in full force. General Iron (recently rebranded as Southside Recycling lol) historically ran its shredding operation out of Northern Chicago. However, its plant in Lincoln Park recently closed after some…technical difficulties: a 2015 fire, a 2016 city-ordered shutdown, a 2017 harassment lawsuit, a 2018 citation for excessive air emissions, and a 2020 explosion followed by yet another fire. Yikes. However, the plant wasn’t closing permanently, but simply being relocated from the wealthy, majority white neighborhood of Lincoln park to the majority Latino Southeast side.
Hence the protests.
Exactly. Activists have been calling this move a classic case of environmental racism, and they have done everything they can to protect this community from being polluted by yet another facility, including filing lawsuits and organizing a hunger strike. Finally, D.C. took notice, and EPA head Michael Regan wrote a letter to Lori Lightfoot basically saying “this place has been through enough”. And now, the scrap shredder permit is officially undergoing a new investigation to determine its impact on the environment.
Victory!
Well, the permit has been indefinitely delayed, which isn’t necessarily the same thing as it being permanently cancelled. But activists are celebrating, since this is the culmination of years spent advocating for the health of the people of Chicago. TBD on the final outcome, but for now, pop the champagne.
In Other News…
Ubers for Salmon
But not uber eats. Because of drought and high temperatures, the rivers are too low and too warm in California for salmon to make their annual journey out to sea. To keep them alive, almost 17 million smolt (the word for young adult salmon, how cute) will be loaded into trucks and driven from salmon hatcheries all the way to the San Francisco Bay. The last time salmon were chauffeured like this was 2014, during another major drought in the state. This is the 4th driest year on record in California, and the governor has already called a drought emergency in 41 out of 58 counties. It will take 146 truckloads to get all the fish from the hatcheries to the ocean, and they’re packed in there like sardines. Well, like salmon. You get it.
And also…
