Factory in Latino Section of Chicago Cited for Emitting Lead:

Published April 27, 2011

EFE

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a Notice of Violation of the U.S. Clean Air Act to a Chicago foundry accused of emitting tons of lead particles in an area that is home to two mainly Hispanic schools.

The notice from the EPA's Chicago office to H. Kramer & Co. is the first concrete response to neighborhood demands dating back to 2004, since on the political level a proposed municipal Clean Air Ordinance has stalled.

The matter was not able to be voted on to date despite having the support of 26 Chicago aldermen, and action by the new City Council and newly-elected Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who will assume office on May 16, is still being awaited.

The EPA says H. Kramer & Co. must take urgent measures to reduce the emission of lead, a pollutant that causes brain damage.

The Notice of Violation, according to regional EPA administrator Susan Hedman, is based on the pollution levels measured between October 2010 and January 2011 by devices located on the roofs of Perez Elementary School and Benito Juarez Community Academy, a high school.

On March 16, for example, the amount of lead detected at Perez was 0.24 micrograms per cubic meter of air, higher than the federal limit of 0.03 micrograms.

On the same day at Juarez Community Academy, 0.07 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air was measured.

The EPA simultaneously requested the intervention of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to see to it that police measures would be taken forcing the firm to comply with a judicial order.

H. Kramer & Co. has worked as a metal foundry since 1920 and is one of the main industries emitting lead particles in the Chicago area.

The firm had been warned in March by the EPA about its violation of clean air standards and its lack of use of filters to minimize emissions.

In addition to this firm, however, also operating in the area is the Fisk coal-fired electric plant, the pollutants from which affect the schools and the residential area located a few blocks away.

Environmental groups accused H. Kramer and Fisk of polluting the air and contributing to the high level of illnesses registered in the zone, from chronic bronchitis to asthma and lung cancer.

In addition, it is estimated that these plants put out the same amount of pollution as the carbon emissions from 1.3 million automobiles.

Studies show that Chicago has the highest concentration in the nation of people living near coal-fired plants and 83 percent of those people living less than 3 miles from H. Kramer and Fisk are non-whites, mainly Latinos.

Behind the proposed municipal Clean Air Ordinance is Mexican American alderman Daniel Solis, who has called himself "the greenest alderman" after his reelection recently was seen as endangered because he had not attended to the problem.

The ordinance would obligate Fisk to substitute natural gas for coal.

In addition, it would establish strict emission controls for other polluting plants located in Pilsen and the Mexican neighborhood of Little Village.

Solis said Tuesday that the ordinance had become the "top priority" of his ward because of the demands of his constituents.

However, he admitted that there are other polluters in the area, like locomotives, where federal intervention is needed to act because the railways are under the jurisdiction of the national government.

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