With the generous assistance of MarySue Barrett, Mandy Burrell, (Metropolitan Planning Council), Glenda Daniel (Openlands Project), Cameron Davis (Alliance for the Great Lakes), Howard Ehrman (UIC, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization), Doug Farr (Farr Associates), Margaret Frisbie (Friends of the Chicago River), Sadhu Johnston (City of Chicago, Department of Environment), Jackie Leavy (Neighborhood Capital Budget Group), Howard Learner (ELPC), Jan Metzger (Center for Neighborhood Technology), Tim Montague (Environmental Research Foundation), Peter Nicholson (Foresight Design Initiative), Max Muller (Environment Illinois), Lynn Peemoeller, Jim Slama (Sustain USA), Charles Shaw (Conscious Choice), Erma Tranter (Friends of the Park), Brian Urbaszewski (American Lung Association), and Betsy Vandercook (Chicago Recycling Coalition).
OVERALL GRADE: B
1. Clean up the Chicago River: A-
In 2005, Mayor Richard M. Daley hired a point person for the Chicago River and published a “Chicago River Agenda” that would improve water quality, protect nature and wildlife, balance river uses, and enhance neighborhood and community life. In addition, the city has developed a stormwater ordinance requiring larger developments to keep and absorb the first half-inch of stormwater, which is the most polluted part of the run-off into the river. Furthermore, there is now a tunnel to Lake Michigan from McCormick Place so that rain on the roof of this massive structure does not add to the sewer system, which backs up into the river when it reaches capacity. The Chicago Department of Environment has also initiated a rain-barrel program. The barrels collect stormwater for lawn and garden watering, water that would otherwise add to the overburdened sewers.
As for improving the land along the banks of the river, the Chicago Park District has acquired 30 acres of riverside parkland, and the city performs inspections to make sure that landowners clean up and fix up their river banks. In some cases, this means the city has to improve its own property.
Margaret Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River, points out that the condition of the river depends on more than the city, and that water quality is really the responsibility of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD). She notes the progress of the tunnel and reservoir plan, better known as the Deep Tunnel project. According to this plan, tunnels will hold the first and most polluted part of heavy rain run-off instead of letting it flow into the Chicago River. The tunnels are now complete, though the reservoirs won’t be done for 15 years or more.
On another front, Frisbie applauds the election of Deborah Shore to the MWRD board, saying Shore will bring a better conservation perspective. Frisbie also praises Mayor Daley, saying, “The mayor’s staff is working really hard to implement systemic change. The mayor has been an enormous champion of the river.”
Suggestion: Frisbie suggests that there should be more planning to determine where along the river it is possible to have a 60-foot setback — the open ground between the river and building or pavement — instead of the currently mandated 30-foot setback. The wider space allows for more vegetation to be planted, which would help stormwater be absorbed into the ground, reducing the amount of road salt and other pollutants that go into the water. (A setback plan like this has been created in the case of Bubbly Creek, the South Branch of the South Fork of the river. For that part of the river, areas where a larger setback will work have been identified.)
2. Make Chicago the Organic Food Capital of the Midwest: A
The numbers haven’t changed much since 2003: The demand for organic food in Chicago is still about 30 times what is supplied locally, according to Jim Slama, president of Sustain. But the city is doing more to encourage improvement of this situation so that this huge economic and environmental opportunity is not effectively shipped to California, where most organic produce is grown.
Mayor Daley’s Chicago Organic Committee created the Chicago Organic Plan, which aims to support the cultivation and distribution of local organic food. In addition, the city’s Farmers Market program has created the position of “forager” with the Green City Market to find more local farmers to supply Chicago.
There is interest in building a permanent public market in Chicago, just east of Michigan Avenue along the Chicago River (look out, Seattle). Also, the city is working with Goodness Greeness, the largest privately held distributor of organic produce in the city, to expand their business and build a larger distribution center.
And City Hall itself has become an example of urban farming. Its green roof has been used for beehives to produce honey, and strawberries are next.
Numerous other food-related initiatives have taken root, according to Sustain’s program director, Lynn Peemoeller. The Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council, an ad hoc collective of over 300 individuals and community organizations working on local food issues, is planning their second Food Policy Summit for Jan. 19. There, various city departments and community representatives will discuss such issues as access to food in underserved neighborhoods and the future of urban agriculture.
Because of the amount of land available for farming within the city limits, and the growing interest in both the public and private sectors, Chicago could possibly become the urban agriculture capital of America. What it would take, says Peemoeller, would be commitment to land and resources through smart public policy and community support to transform empty lots across the city into economically viable farms.
In one example of a working urban agriculture relationship, the Chicago Park District has partnered with Growing Power, a national non-profit group that offers training in sustainable agriculture, to grow food on a 20,000 square-foot urban farm in Grant Park, adjacent to Buckingham Fountain.
Suggestions: The city should take the next steps on the creation of a permanent public market. With all the vacant land available, particularly on the South and West Sides, the city should facilitate and fully support more urban agriculture projects and encourage the private sector to get involved as well. A joint public/private development fund would enable neighborhoods and communities to plan and execute their own projects independent of city or state government. Financial incentives should be offered to lure more organic companies to Chicago. And a clever “food literacy campaign” would go a long way toward educating Chicagoans about the possibilities and potential of local food systems. Also, drastically increase access to healthy food in Chicago’s “food deserts,” underserved neighborhoods without access to fresh food, through more farmers markets, more neighborhood food stores, and locally planned redevelopment.
3. Expand and Improve Chicago’s Parks and Forest Preserves; Forest Preserves: B+,
Park District: B*
This grade for the Chicago’s park system should come with a gigantic asterisk because four years ago we did not have Millennium Park, and now we do. This unique urban space has reinvented what a park is—how it is conceived and planned, funded and managed, constructed, and operated. Millennium Park’s instant success has given the city added vibrancy downtown and new, yet immediately timeless, Chicago icons such as Geary’s band shell, the “Faces of Chicago” fountain, and Amish Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate” sculpture, otherwise known as “The Bean.” Critics of this oft criticized “vanity project” were resoundingly humbled when the park opened and everyone…and we mean everyone…came out to enjoy it. And they haven’t left.
As for the Chicago Park District, let’s first remember that we are talking about “more than 7,300 acres of parkland, 552 parks, 32 beaches, nine museums, two world-class conservatories, 16 historic lagoons, 10 bird and wildlife gardens, and thousands of special events, sports and entertainment programs.” So there’s a lot to try to assess. But there are several undeniably positive developments. The Park District has taken charge of those 91 acres on Northerly Island that used to be Meigs Field. It has also acquired 30 acres for park space along the Chicago River. A bird hospital opened on Northerly Island in April, and the Garfield Park Conservatory continues to play a central role in the revitalization of its surrounding neighborhood. The Park District also completely overhauled their Web site, chicagoparkdistrict.com, making a vast amount of information available to the public.
There is also good news from the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. CC’s principal recommendation three years ago was that the district makes acquisition of additional land a priority. According to Friends of the Parks President Erma Tranter, District General Superintendent Steven Bylina, Jr. has added $2.75 million under his discretion to the currently budgeted $17 million for land acquisition. That land acquisition, scheduled over the next three years, is in various stages of completion.
In addition, land restoration continues in various parks, with work done both from within and from outside the district’s staff. Tranter says the Forest Preserve District now has more certified arborists than any comparable agency, a result of the new superintendent’s emphasis on training. The district’s law enforcement people are being trained in conservation law, and are also being required to get out of their motor vehicles, to be on foot and on bicycle and to interact with the public more. Tranter also rates Bylina highly for a public awareness campaign, both about the gems that the district has to offer and, through easy-to-read maps, about the district’s trails. And, she says, Bylina invites groups such as Friends of the Parks to his office to talk about policy issues and ask for input before preparing the next year’s proposed budget.
The Chicago Park District is sometimes slammed for not seeking public input, but Tranter said that depends on which issue you’re talking about. At the neighborhood level, the Park District works closely with community groups on projects, though that’s not the case with certain massive projects such as the rebuilding of Soldier Field, she said.
The Park District took some flak following the closure of Meigs Field, but remember, closing Meigs wasn’t their decision. The Daley administration has been redeveloping the peninsula of Northerly Island as a park. Thankfully, the “Friends of Meigs” were a tiny, privileged minority (who, we all know, hate to lose), and the people of Chicago, on balance, were undoubtedly the winners. Go there now, if you’ve never been. It’s a truly beautiful place to behold the majesty of the city.
Suggestion: Both districts use their Web sites to publicize dates and agendas for Board meetings and committee hearings, which is all to the good. But both also are not taking advantage of the Web as a medium for receiving public comments. With the Internet opening up populist critique and two-way communication, these public entities should explore new method of public input, such as message boards and virtual town meetings.
And dog parks. Lots and lots more dog parks. The city is woefully underserved for one of the canine capitals of the world.
4. Improve Recycling and Resource Recovery: C
For many years, Chicagoans committed to recycling have lived in an absurd parody of an official program that on its surface seemed unworkable from the start, and was at best, grossly under-effective: mixing blue bags of recyclables with regular bags of household garbage in the same cart and then in the same garbage truck. But this past October, the city announced a change.
In 2007, seven out of 50 city wards will have separate cart collection, meaning that a blue cart in the alley will hold recyclables and will be picked up by a separate truck. Even more promising, according to Betsy Vandercook, president of the Chicago Recycling Coalition, is the future plan to buy a total of 600,000 blue carts for household recycling, thanks to an $8 million grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. In addition, 15 new drop-off centers have already been opened to provide new recycling opportunities throughout the city.
Besides this long-sought improvement, the city has opened a permanent facility to accept hazardous household waste and used electronics, and it has passed tough construction and demolition waste legislation that mandates 50 percent recycling in 2007. It established a city-wide battery recovery system through drop-off sites in 83 public libraries and 114 Walgreens drug stores. Chicago Public Schools have added recycling to all of their schools, and the city’s Christmas tree recycling program has expanded. There is also a Waste-to-Profit Network underway to connect the waste products of one industry to another industry that can make use of them.
Suggestions: Although the city deserves serious praise for efforts to improve its recycling program, and the new pilot program is definitely a start, it cannot rescue the city from its historically woeful and inadequate recycling infrastructure. As Vandercook says, “Chicagoans must hold the city to its word to ensure that the new blue-cart program is fully established in the first seven wards by the end of 2007, that source-separated recycling is subsequently extended to the entire city, and that sufficient education and publicity are produced to make the new program a success.” She adds that as larger apartment complexes and condos — including all those gargantuan new skyscrapers — are served by private haulers and not city trucks, it would also be necessary to pass and enforce a new ordinance mandating that source-separated recycling be provided for residents of these multi-unit buildings as well. Still, there’s a problem, according to city officials, who say the city is unable to mandate that source-separated recycling be included in contracts between private haulers and multi-unit building owners.
So the larger issue of recycling is not necessarily a legislative or policy issue, it’s more an issue of culture. Recycling, like most sustainable practices, cannot be solely a top-down endeavor. The reason why recycling is so successful in a major metro area like San Francisco is because the values and practices are woven in the social fabric on the community level. Everyone recycles because everyone else recycles. It’s a self-reinforcing value: one does as one’s neighbors do. If the city, or more importantly, some enterprising retailers, found a way to locally manufacture and distribute simple recycling collection and transport systems for every home, apartment and office building in Chicago, and made them easily available, it would go a long way. Recycling isn’t just socially responsible, it’s also a huge economic opportunity.
5. Improve Open Green Space in Chicago Communities: B+
Beyond the dazzling success of Millennium Park with its fantastic garden, what’s happening with open space in Chicago? Schools and community groups who want help with their gardens can get it from Greencorps, a program sponsored in part by the city’s Department of Environment. In addition to free plant material, Greencorps offers groups just starting their gardens a day of labor assistance from one of their crews of landscapers-in-training. Community gardening groups can also get help from NeighborSpace, a non-profit that helps the groups secure their property and find liability insurance.
Our 2003 report card suggested that the city should create a code category for “open space,” to make open space a more respected priority. At the time, even city parks were zoned residential. “Open space zoning” passed the City Council in 2004 and is now in effect for four categories: little parks, big parks (which also includes county Forest Preserves within the city), natural habitats and cemeteries. All of the parks and Forest Preserves have been rezoned to fit these categories and the city has zoned 300 acres as natural habitat that previously were not zoned at all.
Suggestions: Two categories of open space still need their own zoning designation: school/park campuses and community-managed parks. Also, according to Glenda Daniel of the Openlands Project, “A city tree ordinance is needed to protect healthy trees on public lands at a minimum and hopefully provide some protection for mature high quality trees, even on private property.”
6. Develop Chicago’s Strengths in Green Building, Manufacturing and Design: B
When Massive Change opened in September at the Museum of Contemporary Art, it heralded a new era of sustainable design, where Chicago would play an integral role in the introduction and development of new thought, processes and technologies that have the potential to reshape the world. One of the most significant and monumental steps taken in that direction occurred when the city passed an ordinance requiring all future public buildings to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for a “green” building.
To help the private sector along, the city has instituted an expedited permit process for developers who agree to build to LEED standards. The city also launched a Green Building Agenda in 2005, issuing an 18-page report outlining a host of actions the city is taking and will take to encourage LEED-certified building and renovation in the city. One of these actions is the expansion of the Green Roof incentive program.
Although Spire Solar has moved to another part of the city, things have continued to happen to promote a green corridor along Lake Street between the Center for Green Technology and the Garfield Park Conservatory. Christy Webber Landscaping has built a LEED Silver-certified building behind the CGT, and a LEED Silver school is also being built in the area.
As Peter Nicholson of Foresight Design Initiative notes, “The city has led very well by example in this area and now it’s looking back to see who is following. The expedited permit process is an example of a creative solution to increase the following.”
Even though Nicholson feels overall that Chicago is “still waiting to ‘tip’ in the area of sustainable design and manufacturing,” he was instrumental in hauling the city that much closer to the tipping point with the launch of the Chicago Sustainable Business Alliance, where leaders of interested businesses meet and network on a regular basis. Another is the pro bono work Bain Consulting is doing with the city to develop a plan to promote sustainable businesses. And the idea behind the new Waste-to-Profit Network is to help connect the waste products of one business with another business that can use those waste products to make a profit, or use them as raw materials in another process.
Suggestions: As Peter Nicholson puts it: “Sustainability needs to become more of a social norm.” This means that just as organic food has become a culturally sanctioned demand in the last 10 years, sustainability needs to become a widespread social goal as well. So, start demanding more, and live the way you want to see others live.
7. Make the Lakefront an International Showcase for Nature-based Recreation: A-
The big news here continues to be old news, namely the closing of Meigs Field and the opportunity to create a nature-based park on Northerly Island. According to Cameron Davis, executive director of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, the only thing holding this up is the slow-down in the national economy, which in turn slows down the funding sources for this park conversion. The city has, however, continued with a program of restoring traditional recreational amenities at 63rd Street, Rainbow Beach, and North Avenue, as well as some dune restoration.
Meanwhile, summer beach closings continue, resulting from a combination of factors: sewage and stormwater overflow, and people leaving food behind on the beaches. That food attracts an inordinate number of animals that in turn leave their droppings to contribute bacteria to the water. According to Davis, over 40 percent of debris picked up by volunteers on beaches is food and food packaging. He recommends, “We as individuals need to take more responsibility for our urban environment.”
As for the overflow, which in some cases backs up from the river into the lake, this is not as much a city government matter as it is a matter for the nine members of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board. Right now, wastewater is treated but not disinfected.
Suggestion: Water is our most precious resource, and as it becomes more and more scarce, our unique position at the shore of one-fifth of the world’s fresh water supply will become more and more important. It’s time to begin thinking long-term. It is time for all of us to let our elected representatives on the MWRD board know – through petitions, ballot referenda and other means – that we not only want wastewater to be disinfected, but we need policies and regulations that allow us to begin protecting Lake Michigan, which has been under merciless assault in recent years from pollution, depletion, and invasive species.
8. Deepen the Commitment to Green Energy/Energy Efficiency: B-
Five years ago, Mayor Daley promised that by 2006 the city would be buying 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. However, last November, a Chicago Tribune report revealed that, as 2006 drew to a close, the city had fallen short of its goal.
Like by nearly 20 percent. True, there have been some solar panels installed on the Chicago Cultural Center and on some schools. But the city’s deal to buy wind power fell apart, and Chicago’s contract to buy landfill energy (generated by burning methane) from Commonwealth Edison expired in 2004 and was not re-signed.
On a sunnier front, the city has a winter preparation program that Chicago Environment Commissioner Sadhu Johnston describes as “grassroots energy efficiency.” The city gives away kits with packs of compact fluorescent light bulbs and weather stripping to low-income residents, encouraging them to increase the conservation of energy. The city is still pushing for the use of green principles in the ongoing O’Hare expansion project, and an 84-page Sustainable Design Manual was developed for structures such as runways and access roads that lack a certification program like LEED.
As for automotive fuel efficiency, the city implemented a fleet wide idling policy for all city vehicles, mandating that they shut down after five minutes of idling, substantially conserving fuel and reducing emissions. It has equipped school buses with diesel oxidation catalysts and particulate-matter filters. The city has transferred a few hundred of its vehicles to flex fuel and compressed natural gas, and also plans to increase the conversion by 10 percent annually. Johnston reports that the city is negotiating the construction of the first ethanol-to-hydrogen fueling station. “Everyone is hopeful about hydrogen as the fuel of the future,” Johnston says, “but nobody’s quite worked out where you get the hydrogen from. This plant is a first step in solving that.”
Despite these advances, Howard Learner of the Environmental Law and Policy Center says the city has not followed through on its commitment to be one of the country’s top municipal purchasers of wind power. It had committed to purchasing 20 percent of its energy in this form, but has fallen short. Says Learner, “We very much hope that the mayor and the city will follow through and get back on track with this important clean-energy commitment.”
Suggestion: Chicago is really, really falling behind the pack here, and the voices doth protest. Yet, as you read this, there are many visionary thinkers among us crafting alternative energy economies that could bring a whole new economic boom to the Midwest. The key is to identify who they are and bring them to the table to craft a workable model that immediately begins to move us into renewables, and bolster a local and regional economy. The city should also ramp up its availability, assistance and awareness of home-based energy plans like solar and solar thermal, perhaps by partnering with the State of Illinois and the private sector. With oil and natural gas prices expected to rise and continue rising, the only question is, “What are we waiting for?”
9. Create a World Class Transit System: B-
Obviously, Chicago Transit Authority changes are in the works. The Pink Line was recently introduced, and the Circle Line Plan, which would create a new line that links all of the CTA and Metra lines in Chicago, continues its long march through the public hearing process. But some transit advocates ask: What about bus service cutbacks in neighborhoods of color? What about fare increases? What about spending a lot on big downtown projects—such as a superstation under Block 37 and beautification of Loop subway stops—while bus service to poorer neighborhoods suffers cutback after cutback? At the same time, in response to requests from consumers, the CTA has added more express buses.
The CTA is part of a larger transit picture. People come into the city on Metra and then get on a CTA train or bus, and the CTA provides service out to many suburbs. This justifies state funding of the CTA. But the reliance on state funding leads to perennial problems and service cutbacks, though it should be pointed out that overall ridership is up. Some transit advocates think the city should make a more substantial contribution while others think that this isn’t feasible, likely, or even reasonable.
Dr. Howard Ehrman from the University of Illinois-Chicago and the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization says that no other city in the U.S. “comes anywhere close to the lack of funding for public transportation than the city of Chicago.” Ehrman says that for the last 32 years the city has spent $3 million per year, or $1 per person out of the city’s budget, on the CTA. The next city up the ladder, Pittsburgh, spends $33 million, and only has a population of 334,562: ten times as much as Chicago spends, for just one-tenth of the people. New York City spends $200 million, Los Angeles, $165 million. Clearly, here is one obvious opportunity for rather substantial change.”
According to Jackie Leavy, of the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group, which looks out for the meaningful neighborhood use of tax money, Mayor Daley should use some of the money from the lease of the toll road and the underground parking garages to bolster the CTA. “The city gives only three million dollars a year to the agency and goes begging to Springfield when fiscal crises loom. It is time for the mayor to use more city money to repair and improve the CTA. It is also time to get the universal fare card going to allow transfers between suburban and city transit.”
On the other hand, Jan Metzger at the Center for Neighborhood Technology wants to maintain a regional perspective and cites as encouraging signs the new leadership at the RTA and the transit-reform views of state Rep. Julie Hamos (D-18th), who chairs the Committee on Mass Transit. RTA has a new campaign called Moving Beyond Congestion (movingbeyondcongestion.org), to raise awareness about the importance of transit to everyone, not just those who actually use it.
Suggestion: It’s clear that there is a transit funding problem in our region. It’s also becoming clear that all of the region’s residents need to think in terms of digging deeper into their pockets to maintain and improve the system.
10. Support Chicago Neighborhoods: B/B-
Chicago neighborhoods run the gamut from extreme poverty to extreme privilege, from ethnic or racial enclave to diversity exemplar. Gut wisdom tells us that the health of neighborhoods is essential to the health of the whole city. Even those who prefer to live in relatively secluded dwellings — well, most of them — depend on the availability of living, breathing neighborhoods as places to feel their own culture outside the confines of computer, TV, and movie screens. For more social beings, neighborhoods offer shopping, dining, recreation, meetings of every description, and services of all kinds. Given the huge variety of neighborhoods in the city, when you step outside your own particular pocket, you can gain the cultural experience of world travel without ever going through the hassle of airport security.
So what’s up with the ’hoods? Many people believe that big box stores pose a threat by driving out independent retailers and destroying the pedestrian character of neighborhoods. As green architect Doug Farr puts it, “In terms of strengthening local walk-to businesses, many of which are locally owned, the city has no plan. Every additional big box store — Costco, Wal-Mart, whatever — takes more money out of the economy and puts that many more small locally owned businesses out. People enjoy the big box stores and the choice they provide, but people don’t realize at what cost they come.”
MarySue Barrett of the Metropolitan Planning Council points out that the city’s earlier development was tied to streetcar stops every four blocks, and that’s why there’s still a large commercial street at that frequency in many parts of the city. But, says Barrett, this does not conform to the way we shop now. The question is, what kind of zoning map will work to encourage business and to preserve the pedestrian quality of neighborhoods?
Since our last report, the city zoning code, written in 1955, was totally overhauled, and a whole new zoning code has come into effect. There now is a zoning designation for pedestrian-oriented shopping districts, but, according to Barrett, aldermen and citizens are still working out the nitty-gritty of the new zoning code on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis. “It’s a process of education and implementation that is still ongoing.”
Farr notes that in the Andersonville neighborhood, “They have put in place a program to try to keep chain stores from kicking out successful locally owned stores.” Farr also feels positive about the construction of median planters and the designation of bike lanes on arterial streets, about LEED Neighborhood Development Standards for redeveloping neighborhoods, and about the Green Urban Design initiative.
In the area of public housing, there is a huge transformation taking place with the Chicago Housing Authority’s properties. In theory at least, mixed income development – one-third market rate, one-third affordable, one-third public housing – is replacing the huge public housing developments of the past. The jury is still out on exactly how successful these new neighborhoods will be. There is some difficulty in finding current CHA residents who meet the eligibility requirements for the new units, which can vary from one development to another but typically include such criteria as credit history and criminal background checks, drug testing, and an evaluation of a resident’s employment and economic self-sufficiency record. There is also a question about what happens to those who don’t qualify, or who choose not to live in the new developments. There are efforts to counsel these residents, but they seem to be inadequate. The health of the new neighborhoods — complicated by the marketing of the new developments in a balkanized atmosphere — and the health of older neighborhoods facing an influx of former CHA residents are in question.
Suggestions: The city needs to do more to help CHA populations in transition, and to work out better coordination of different government entities in planning new and revived neighborhoods. We need to continue with the effort to reclaim streets from auto domination, and to publicize and encourage the use of LEED for Neighborhood Development standards.
11. Clean up coal-fired power plants: A (pending)/Overall Air Quality: F
And finally we come to the large, festering black tumor affixed to the side of the otherwise beautiful and elegant “Greenest City in America,” and in the same breath, some of the best news of the decade on the environmental front.
According to a 2001 Harvard School of Public Health study, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions from nine coal-fired power plants in Illinois are responsible for 14,000 additional asthma attacks and 300 premature deaths annually. As the study points out, these coal-fired power plants were “grandfathered in,” exempting them from the stricter standards required of new plants. And contrary to the state’s expectation, it’s turned out to be cheaper for owners to replace part after part after part on the old plants than to build new plants that would have to meet current standards.
These coal-fired plants also release mercury into the air, which settles into the ground and water and is absorbed into the food chain. In September of 2006, Environment Illinois tested 10 local sushi restaurants and found that 10 percent of the tuna exceeded levels unsafe for human consumption. 70 percent exceeded the Illinois EPA’s special advisory threshold that, for example, recommends women and children eat no more than one serving per month. This adds to a recent stream (no pun intended) of bad news about high levels of mercury in store-bought tuna, locally caught fish and other seafood available to the residents of Illinois.
“Mercury contamination is a toxic threat to food safety in Illinois, and the only long-term solution is to cut off mercury pollution at its source,” said Max Muller from Environment Illinois. “In Illinois, the main sources are coal-burning power plants and the improper disposal of products containing mercury (like fluorescent light bulbs and computer screens).” (Read the whole story)
But fear not, Chicagoans, change is finally a-comin’! As tough new federal regulations for mercury emissions come into effect, finally, in a monumental announcement in mid-December, Midwest Generation, the owner of the two coal-fired plants in the city along with others in Will County and Joliet, will spend $3.5 billion over the next 10 years to clean up and or shut down all of their coal-fired plants, build a $1.4 billion “clean burning coal” plant that they hope will be a showcase for this new technology, and invest $800 million in wind technology.
Beginning in 2007, Midwest Generation will install “ACI” technology that will remove 80-90 percent of the mercury emitted from their coal-fired plants. Fisk and Crawford, the two plants in the city, will either be shut down or have scrubbers installed by 2017. Of the 19 units they operate outside the city limits, such as those in Will County, four or five will be closed, and nine will have scrubbers installed.
We cannot underestimate the impact of this last-minute announcement. It saved the city from an “F”. But, the “A” grade is pending, since we know that corporations are notorious for reneging on promises. If next year the ACI technology is installed on schedule as promised, we’ll begin to take Midwest Generation’s promises seriously, and heap all due kudos on them.
Of course, this doesn’t change a thing about Chicago’s current air quality problems, so we are forced to give an “F” for that, and are compelled to publish something about it. So we ran a sidebar story to the Green Report Card in this month’s issue. We encourage you to read “Let’s Clear the Air Here” by Tim Montague of the Environmental Research Foundation to learn more. The smoking ban that passed in 2006 is a huge step as well, if it ever comes into effect and is enforced. Right now, smoking is still allowed in bars and restaurants, so nothing has really changed, particularly when we non-smokers have to come home at night after visiting one of these places.
Suggestion: Make Midwest Generation stick to its 10-year/$3.5 billion commitment to clean up and/or shut down their coal-fired plants and invest in wind energy. This might make a significant difference in Chicago, but doesn’t even scratch the surface of what could be accomplished if people just drove less. Also, for cryin’ out loud, Chicago, would you enforce the smoking ban? What’s this “well, we passed ban but it doesn’t come into effect for X years and then there are these exceptions”? I mean, if you can’t be a “little bit pregnant” then how can we have “a partial smoking ban”?
EXTRA POINTS: Marketing, Awareness, and Credibility: A+
What Chicago has accomplished in resplendent fashion is marketing the transformative power of a “green city.” Over the last few years, Mayor Daley has hauled his fair share of water for the green cause, tirelessly traversing the nation to sign the mayors of other cities to a whole host of climate protection and green building statements like the “Cool Cities” campaign. In 2006, Chicago finally got its due for all its greening efforts when it was highlighted in the “green” issue of Vanity Fair and was chosen as the subject of two powerful documentaries on the green revolution, Design e2: The Economics of Being Environmentally Conscious (which also features Chicagoans Doug Farr and Blair Kamin) and Edens Lost & Found: How Ordinary Americans are Restoring our Great American Cities.
Chicago also managed to become just the third city to play host to the wildly innovative Green Festival, the world’s largest sustainability event, which will next grace the halls of McCormick Place on Earth Day Weekend in April. Begun in 2001 in San Francisco as a collaboration between Global Exchange and Co-Op America, it has in recent years expanded to an East Coast presence in Washington, D.C. More than 30,000 people are expected to attend this unique event. Because it is the first of its kind in the center of the country, strong regional participation from cities like Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Madison, Detroit, St. Louis, Des Moines, Cleveland, and Indianapolis is expected, making Chicago yet again another crucible for change. It also puts forth Chicago as the largest city in America with a comprehensive green agenda.
In an era of mass-media, when one magazine or film has the ability to transform the minds of millions, the power of this achievement cannot be understated.
Jack Bess is a Chicago-based writer and the Copy Editor for Conscious Choice. Jonn Salovaara also contributed to the writing of this report.