10th ward news By: Rose Zivat, staff writer The Hegewisch Times Published on May 3, 2018 at 4:30 pm Revised on May 4, 2018 at 7:30 pm Recently Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10th Ward), in conjunction with the Southeast Environmental Task Force (SETF) and the Coalition to Ban Petcoke (CBP), posted a flyer on social media informing the community of an upcoming public meeting with representatives of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Chicago District (LRC), and the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) to gain input for a new location for dredged sediment. A message from Ald. Sadlowski Garza accompanied the flyer posted. It urged 10th Ward residents to show up for one of two workshops held on Saturday, April 28, 2018, at Rowan Park Gymnasium or Monday, April 30, 2018, at the East Side Vodak Public Library and voice their opposition to a new landfill that the USACE and CDOT want to add to the Ward. I attended the public workshop on Monday, April 30. At the start of the meeting, Ald. Sadlowski Garza addressed the community by giving her own presentation wherein she stated that everyone present understood the importance of the commerce that the waterways bring and the need for dredging. Her position is that they take the dredge (sediment) and dump it somewhere else. She asked the panel, which included Clayton Harris III, Executive Director for the Illinois International Port District at the Port of Chicago; Col. Aaron Reisinger, Commander of the USACE’s Chicago District; and Daniel Burke, Deputy Commissioner/Chief Engineer at the Chicago Department of Transportation, if there were other confined disposal facility (CDF) locations within the city. The panel did not respond. In essence, the Ward would be host to two CDFs (the other is located at Iroquois Landing, north of Calumet Park and has been there for years). “No one else has even one and now you want us to have two,” said Ald. Sadlowski Garza. She told the panel that she doesn’t believe them when they say that the toxins in the sediment aren’t harmful. “And when you talk about these things are safe. There’s a legacy. They told us that Petcoke was safe. That the steel mills were safe they told us that all these things were safe and you know what? 25 years later we found out that people are suffering from lung cancer, brain cancer, don’t tell me it’s safe,” said Ald. Sadlowski Garza She said that the USACE and CDOT want to bring another landfill to the 10th Ward and that there’s a moratorium in Cook County that says no more landfills. “I’m arguing with these guys because they say this isn’t a landfill,” she said. “You’re digging a hole and you’re putting stuff in the land, I call that a landfill.”

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Ald. Sadlowski Garza advised that CDOT, the USACE’s local sponsor took $350,000 from the Ward’s TIF money for the study without telling her and that she found out it was missing when she went to request the TIF money. She urged 10th Ward residents to say “NO MORE TO DUMPING IN THE 10TH WARD.” While I was not able to confirm if TIF money was actually used for the study, I did find out that federal law requires that USACE have a local sponsor for assistance with the land, easements, etc., and to take responsibility of the facility once it is filled and closed. The local sponsor is usually a city, county, or state partner and is required to provide 25% of the funding for construction of the CDF. If the USEPA certifies that the CDF is in compliance with an approved water quality program, then the local cost could be waived. Once the facility is filled, the local sponsor receives title to the CDF and must maintain it.1 In addition, she advised that U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski (IL-3), shut down a CDF site in Worth, Ill. “He closed it because he said he doesn’t want that there,” Ald. Sadlowski Garza said. “Why does he get to say no and we don’t and we’re going to have to take his stuff? I don’t think so. No. Why does he get to say no and we can’t?” She further stated her opposition of any more dumping in her Ward and described in great detail the 8 existing landfills in the greater Southeast Side, namely the Shroud Site; Arc Furnace Landfill; Waste Management Landfill; South Chicago Recycle Center Landfill; Land and Lakes Harborview Landfill; Port Authority Golf Course Landfill; Paxton Landfill; and Waste Management of Chicago Landfill. Some of the landfills named contain toxics so bad that they cannot be used for development. She displayed a picture of the sites and their close proximities within the Ward and it was indeed a tough pill to swallow. Before leaving to attend another meeting, Ald. Sadlowski Garza reiterated her opposition to more dumping in her Ward. She thanked the community in attendance and said that she is counting on the community to let their voices be heard. She reminded the community that this is our neighborhood and stated that everyone there from the USACE goes home somewhere else. She asked the community to stand up and fight back. For the record, a Corps rep does live in the 10th Ward. When it was time for the USACE to speak, a representative advised that USACE had developed a Dredged Material Management Plan (DMMP) for the maintenance of Calumet Harbor & River and the Cal-Sag Channel for the next 25 years. This is actually required under federal law and USACE policy. Basically, the community was told that there are three waterways in our backyard that need dredging. Dredging is removal of sediment from the bottom of a waterway making it deep enough for large vessels to bring in commodities from around the nation and the world. In this case, the waterways that need dredging happen to be the Calumet Harbor and River and the Cal-Sag 1 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.526.9163&rep=rep1&type=pdf

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Channel. Under normal circumstances, the sediment that is dredged would be collected and reused (sand/silt) or taken out to open waters and dumped. However, what the USACE found during testing of the Calumet River and Cal-Sag Channel waterways is sediment that it is too polluted to be placed in Lake Michigan and must be contained in what they refer to as a CDF. At this facility, which the USACE claims is not a landfill due to its design above land and the way it is used, the toxic sediment will be contained, dewatered, and the water will be treated.2 The current CDF, located at Iroquois Landing, north of Calumet Park, has been in use for almost 30 years and will reach its capacity in five years. The USACE has provided 9 sites and your suggestions and/or comments for new CDF site recommendations can be done until Saturday, May 5. You can do this by regular mail, email, or via a web application tool called “Crowdsource Polling.” Here’s the information from USACE:

“Crowdsource Polling” is a web application that is being tested/piloted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chicago District as a tool for gathering public input during the site selection process. All comments received using this tool will be part of the public record and can be released under the Freedom of Information Act. All comments received are subject to review and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reserves the right to remove comments that include offensive content and/or language. While removed comments will no longer be visible on the web application, they will still be reviewed and included in the public record. This tool is intended to remain online between April 6, 2018, and May 5, 2018, and can be found at the link below: https://usace-lrc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/CrowdsourcePolling/index.html?appid=befceeca94674d0b85dcca348c3a15b0 Comments may be submitted at any time: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District, 231 S. LaSalle Street, Suite 1500, Chicago, IL 60604, ATTN: Planning Branch; or e-mailed to chicagodistrict.pao@usace.army.mil.”

Some members of the community were allowed to comment at the end of the meeting. They said the same thing: No to the dumping of any toxic sediment in our community. One woman gave a passionate plea for the members of the USACE and CDOT to take the sediment elsewhere because she can’t go to Calumet Park without getting sick to her stomach and having diarrhea. I chose to use my two minutes to let USACE and my community know that I was going to weigh the pros and cons and I would like to hear solutions from Ald. Sadlowski Garza, the SETF, and CBP since they were the organizations that brought us there and asked them to post the information on their websites as soon as possible because time is of the essence. I stated that I am a lifelong 10th Ward 2 http://www.lrc.usace.army.mil/Portals/36/docs/projects/calumetharbor/What%20is%20in%20the%20sediment_4%20April%202018.pdf

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resident, that with the exception of one brother, my entire family lives in the 10th Ward, and that my husband’s entire family are also residents of the 10th Ward. That night at the meeting, I was too busy taking notes that I did not realize that Ald. Sadlowski Garza had indeed recommended two alternatives. The first was a suggestion that the USACE dump the toxic sediment in the quarry along I-80. Her other suggestion was to use the dredging to cap the Shroud site. Initially, I thought the latter would have been a good alternative, but I doubt that the EPA will allow placement of toxicity upon toxicity and the last thing that the residents, living behind the Shroud site, need is double exposure to toxic waste. I researched Ald. Sadlowski Garza’s claim that U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski (IL-3) closed down a CDF in Worth, Ill., and I found that, in 2005 Lipinski (IL-3) began his fight to close the Lucas-Berg CDF in Worth, Ill. He co-wrote legislation that was eventually passed and signed into law by President Obama in 2014 (Section 6004 (Deauthorizations) of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014). This legislation allowed for the shutdown of the Worth, Ill., CDF. It turns out that the USACE spent millions of dollars to construct the Lucas-Berg CDF site that was completed in the early 1980s, and subsequently it was left unused for 30 years. It was only intended to hold sediment from the nearby Cal-Sag Channel. When Lipinski addressed the site, it was discovered that there were deficiencies that would have cost the USACE roughly $6.6 million in repairs before it could be used. To shut down the Worth, Ill., CDF, it appears that Lipinski used growing industry and housing, an empty CDF, and much needed costly repairs to pass his legislation. Additionally, he allocated $100,000 for the use of a study that produced 41 potential containment sites. Eventually, that number dwindled down to 20 potential sites ranging from south of Joliet to Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan.3 The question then becomes what happened to the 20 potential sites and why were they removed from the locations that we have been given? It is because the Lucas-Berg CDF was only intended for dredged sediment from the Cal-Sag Channel and the sites chosen would not be large enough for our needs? Residents of the 10th Ward have until tomorrow, May 5, 2018 to provide the USACE with a site or, in the alternative, say, “No, to more dumping in the 10th Ward.” Click on the link below to give your opinion. https://usace-lrc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/CrowdsourcePolling/index.html?appid=befceeca94674d0b85dcca348c3a15b0

3https://lipinski.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=49&parentid=6&sectiontree=6,49&itemid=1046

https://lipinski.house.gov/dan-in-the-news/the-reporter-army-corps-finds-other-sites-for-canal-dredgings/ https://lipinski.house.gov/press-releases/rep-peter-visclosky-joins-lipinski-in-looking-at-the-future-of-lucas-berg/ https://lipinski.house.gov/energyenvironment/lipinski-request-yields-20-potential-alternatives-to-lucas-berg-pit-in-worth-february-17-2009/ https://lipinski.house.gov/energyenvironment/lipinski-army-corps-relinquishes-deed-for-lucasberg-site-in-worth-community-no-longer-faces-threat-of-calsag-dumping-october-26-2015/

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To learn more about the USACE’s Dredged Material Management Plan (DMMP), click on the links below: https://usace-lrc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/CrowdsourcePolling/index.html?appid=befceeca94674d0b85dcca348c3a15b0 http://www.lrc.usace.army.mil/Portals/36/docs/projects/calumetharbor/CAWS%20DMMP_Draft%20workshop%20slides_final.pdf