Pilsen metal shredder could become next big environmental battle in Chicago

As a parent and decade-long Pilsen resident, Troy Hernandez worries a lot about the toxic pollution blowing from a nearby metal-shredding operation that sits along the Chicago River near homes and schools.

Just as a similar business — the scrap metal yard General Iron — operated in Lincoln Park for decades, the company now known as Sims Metal Management has been a longtime Lower West Side industrial fixture at 2500 S. Paulina St.

Sims shreds and transports large amounts of metal, including scrapped cars and appliances, emitting tons of chemicals and other contaminants into the air every year, though the limits are supposed to be tightly controlled so they don’t harm public health.

Like General Iron, Sims has a history of running afoul of pollution laws. It paid $225,000 to settle a federal environmental case in 2018 and, more recently, has been accused in a state lawsuit of inadequately controlling air pollution, potentially releasing more than 25 tons of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds in a single year. Sims admitted no wrongdoing in the federal case as part of the settlement and denies most of the accusations in the state suit.

Read more: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/1/13/22882507/pilsen-sims-metal-management-shredder-illinois-environmental-protection-agency