PERRO, or the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization, is a grassroots community group of Chicago residents that formed in 2004 to fight the disproportionate amount of pollution in the city's Pilsen neighborhood. Located on the South Side, Pilsen is primarily a Hispanic neighborhood of working-class Mexican immigrants. In the past 10 years, however, it has experienced an influx of middle-class whites because of its proximity to downtown Chicago. And that is when things started to change.
Danny Solis, the acting alderman to the city who has been in office since 1996, is known to sway his opinion based on his political interests or the financial contributions made to his office. Danny is environmentally concerned when it's a matter of self-interest: He only opposed the Fisk coal plant here because he was almost defeated in a close primary a few years ago, when residents made it clear how much they wanted to see the closure of the plant.
PERRO’s mission, like so many community groups pressuring public officials across the United States, is to spread awareness about environmental justice and to make the Pilsen community a healthier place to live, work and raise children. As an active volunteer with PERRO for the past three years, I have participated in a full array of activities, from canvassing to phone banking, marching to rallying. And it all started after I went to a group meeting.
I was interested in working to close the two ancient, century-old coal power plants that existed a few miles apart from one another in the communities of Pilsen and Little Village, both on the South Side of Chicago. Each of the coal power plants, Fisk in Pilsen and Crawford in Little Village, operated within hundreds of feet of the homes and residents. I grew up in one of these communities until I was a teenager. It angered me how these outdated coal plants existed despite documented evidence of environmental and health dangers that directly affected residents. In September 2012, the painstaking, decade-long struggle ended with the closure of both coal-powered plants. It was a sweet and joyous victory after all our sweat and toil.
Today, PERRO is still active in Pilsen trying to reduce pollution and enact measures that foster environmental justice. And there are several business proposals right now pending, which will directly affect the community and merit special attention.
The Zoning Board of Appeals approved a proposal on February 21 by Pure Metals LLC to build a metal-shredding facility across from the largest high school in Pilsen, named Benito Juarez. The proposal is supported by Alderman Solis, despite community disapproval. Solis has received political contributions of more than $30,000 from proponents of the plan. Meanwhile, despite outnumbering the plan's supporters by 2-1, opponents of the metal facility had to wait up to nine hours to testify at the Feb. 21 hearing.
Metal shredders release pollutants into the air, soil and water, in addition to producing noise pollution. They are also fire hazards. The industry is largely unregulated by the EPA, which makes it harder to monitor a facility for violations. Scrap metal dealers handle a lot of hazardous materials, including battery acid, lead, arsenic and VOCs (volatile organic compounds.) These serious environmental dangers would threaten the well-being of high school students, staff and the community.
There are a few additional regulatory steps that Pure Metals must complete before the approval process is over – and this gives us a chance to make our voices loudly heard about the safety hazards of opening a dirty new facility within our community.
A second business proposal, also in Pilsen, would build a heliport at Halsted and 24th Street. The facility, named Chicago Helicopter Express, would include up to 60 helicopters with landing and departure pads, a water taxi dock and an observation deck. The company’s helicopters would fly at 1,300 feet and mostly follow flight paths toward Lake Michigan along the nearby expressways. The facility would serve as a launching pad for chartered flights and aerial tours. The heliport is trying to operate until 12 a.m.
Again, Alderman Solis is central in the picture. On February 18, Solis issued a letter to the Chicago Plan Commission pulling his initial support for the project because, he asserted, the community had not been consulted. A scheduled hearing for the project at the Plan Commission on February 20 was subsequently postponed.
Then, on April 1, the heliport was suddenly approved by the Commission. Like the pending approval of the metal shredder, there are some regulatory steps left to complete before the heliport becomes official. Community meetings have been scheduled for residents and concerned citizens to voice their opinions about Chicago Helicopter Express. In recent reports, neighborhood residents have said they are especially angered that they weren't consulted before the proposal was put before the Chicago Plan Commission.
PERRO is working hard with the community: holding community meetings, canvassing, leafleting and allying with other neighborhood organizations to educate residents about the heliport and the metal shredder projects. PERRO organizers argue that not enough input or time was given to the community, and both proposals went before the Zoning Board without proper notification to the community.
I believe that creating jobs should not come at the expense of other people's well-being. But the fact is that both a heliport with over 60 noisy polluting aircraft, and a filthy metal shredder located across from a high school, would have a significant negative environmental impact on our community. Choosing money over community health reflects more than greed: benefiting the few at the expense of the many is, rather, a total injustice. And Chicago residents – if not the officials who were purportedly hired, and elected, to work for them and not the corporations – need to make it heard loud and clear.
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