The pollution next door: Stories of people who live near a major health threat

In Illinois and the Midwest, there are numerous neighborhoods bordering properties producing air, water or soil pollution.

Some residents have lived in these areas for generations; others can’t afford to move.

In the 1990s, state and federal officials began establishing environmental justice policies to prevent toxic threats in poor and minority neighborhoods. More than 25 years later, many question whether these policies have helped.

In the coming year, the Tribune will visit some of these communities and tell the stories of people who live next door to a major health threat.

The first stop in the series is Chicago’s Southeast Side, where residents near the site of the old U.S. Steel South Works and Wisconsin Steel mills have lived in the city’s dumping ground for generations.

In part two, we visit McKinley Park, where a controversial asphalt plant was built four years ago. Residents are pushing the city to close the plant.

Part One: Fiercely proud of their home, residents of the Southeast Side — long a toxic dumping ground — are rising up against polluters

Jobs at the mighty U.S. Steel South Works and Wisconsin Steel mills, among others, paved middle-class lifestyles from South Chicago to Gary for generations of European immigrants, before the arrival of Mexican and Black workers in the early 1900s.

Today, many of their descendants still live in the old mill neighborhoods, some in the same homes their parents or grandparents purchased with their mill earnings.

But a toxic legacy remains. Now, many residents say they’ve had enough.

Read more here.

Part Two: Many industries call the Southwest Side home. McKinley Park — where a controversial asphalt plant built four years ago has sparked complaints about noxious odors — is pushing back.

When operations started at the MAT Asphalt plant, residents complained that they weren’t given an opportunity for public input, and they were concerned about potential health hazards because the facility is near a park and at least two schools.

Four years later, residents are trying to force the plant to shut down and move to a different location, farther away from people.

Read more here.

For more stories from the Tribune with an environmental focus, click here.

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