Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday if she had known that Hilco Redevelopment Partners would not follow mandatory safety measures, she would never have allowed the company to demolish a smokestack at the site of a shuttered coal-fired power plant in Little Village, declaring: “They own this.”
Lightfoot described Hilco’s CEO as “very contrite and embarrassed” about what happened in Little Village, when demolition of the 95-year-old smoke stack caused a giant plume of dust to rain down on the community, making it difficult to breathe during the coronavirus pandemic, leaving homes and vehicles filthy and, potentially, created a public health hazard.
“They own this,” the mayor said. “The representations that were made by Hilco were not followed through on. If anybody in the city government or the alderman’s office knew what was represented to us wasn’t actually gonna be followed on site, we would have stopped it in its tracks. But promises were made. Those promises were not kept,” the mayor said.
Lightfoot promised the city would do “everything we can to meet the needs” of Little Village residents. The cleanup started this weekend — with streets sweepers dispatched on Saturday and Sunday — and continues. All of it will be done at Hilco’s expense, the mayor said.
“Hilco’s actually sending a team of people out today to go literally door-to-door to assess what the damages are. I made it very clear to the CEO of Hilco when I spoke to him that they own this and they have mitigate the harm that’s been done to residents and residents’ property,” the mayor said.
“Once we have an accounting for the extent of the damages, we’ll be in a better position to better understand what the mitigation efforts are gonna be. … But I want cars cleaned. I want streets swept. I want houses to be cleaned of the dust that’s settled. That is the charge I’ve given to my team and Hilco is gonna have to own responsibility for that.”
Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said abatement testing was done on the 95-year-old smokestack before the demolition permit was issued.
A review of those “very detailed reports” show asbestos removal was completed over an 18-month period that ended on Nov. 30 in the main building at the old Crawford power plant. Asbestos removal on an “incidental building” that was not part of the weekend demolition was completed March 31, the commissioner said.
“There’s nothing in these reports at this time that is suggestive that asbestos would have been a problem,” Arwady said.
“That said, we’re collecting additional information — including some of those samples taken on site — just to make sure that everything was done appropriately. But asbestos is one of the areas where we have good information about the work that was done.”
Arwady said testing of air samples from the neighborhood is likely to be done by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as well as its Illinois equivalent.
Attorney Frank Avila Jr., who plants to file a lawsuit on behalf of Little Village residents, likened the scene in Little Village to Chernobyl.
Lightfoot bristled at the comparison to the Russian nuclear power plant disaster.
“I appreciate the hyperbole, but I really don’ think that’s appropriate in this time. People have fear because of COVID-19 — period. And I really have to say it’s a bit offensive … to make light of a circumstance like this, she said.
“This isn’t Chernobyl. … To go back to what that did to that community during that time and continues to be an ongoing circumstance — really poor choice of words.”
The mayor was asked again why she didn’t allowed the demolition despite the pandemic and the pleas of environmental activists.
“I’m not sure that’s accurate. The local alderman was very much engaged 10 days out or longer. He talked to the [Health] Department. He was in contact with the CEO of Hilco. All of us were assured that there was a very specific plan. That there would be water on site and that they would be using the water before, during and after to make sure that a dust cloud didn’t migrate off site,” the mayor said.
“Obviously, that didn’t happen. My understanding is that Hilco has now acknowledged that they did not follow the plan that they told us and told the alderman. If we had known, obviously, that they weren’t gonna do what they said they were gonna do, we wouldn’t have allowed this to go forward.”
Lightfoot was asked whether she would support a City Council vote rescinding a $19.7 million subsidy granted to Hilco for its warehouse project on the site.
“I don’t know that there’s any basis for our taking that kind of action. But, we’re reviewing everything,” she said.
