By Gabriel Palos and Josh Tagudar
@redlineproject
As Midwest Generation moves to demolish the Fisk Power Plant, UIC professor Michael Cailas breaks down the health and safety concerns facing Pilsen and Little Village residents.
The Fisk Generating Station in Pilsen runs on coal and is scheduled to be torn down with no set timeline by an electric utility company, Midwest Generation. But local residents and activists opposite it over air quality and gentrification concerns.
Pilsen residents and activists have expressed concerns over the demolition of the power plant, as they contend that the plant is of historical significance to the neighborhood. Further concern has been raised by residents that the demolition of the power plant would worsen gentrification and the overall character of the Pilsen neighborhood.
Aside from that, the demolition could become an even greater source of pollution that would cause even more health and safety risks to the residents of the surrounding areas, with its negative impact on air quality.
(Map/Gabriel Palos and Josh Tagudar)
“The demolition is not a smokestack,” said Michael Cailas, an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health, in reference to the air quality issues with the Crawford Power Plant demolition in April 2020.
He explained that the building in question will not be exploded, but rather that the demolition will transpire slowly. He added that the main concern for the population is dust exposure and that, “if they use water, the dust will be under control.”
However, a major question remains unanswered: Will the dust contain toxic particles harmful to Pilsen residents and its surrounding neighborhood of Little Village?
As of now, Cailas could not give us a definitive answer to this critical question: “Don’t try to create issues that are not there, OK?”
Upon reading up on the demolition, Cailas discovered that in a community meeting, the installation of four air monitoring stations, as well as a weather station, was discussed. An article by Francia Garcia Hernandez of Block Club Chicago identifies that the air monitors will “track air quality data in 15-minute intervals,” while the weather station will serve as a wind monitor. These tools will ensure that the health of residents will be handled cautiously.
Pilsen resident Brian Kao said the air pollution “is the most severe problem in the power plant [industry]. If you destroy it, it will be more and more pollution. There’s a lot of coal in it, there’s a lot of gasoline in it and when you break them [the plants], that’s a lot of pollution, so the daily life will be really tough because the air pollution, when you breathe in, everything’s like, dirty.”
When asked to specify in what ways the pollution might affect his daily life, Kao expressed concern about his skincare. “When you walk outside, all the things that are contacting your skin … maybe pimples, maybe a lot of things will grow on you; that’s really bad.”
Togi Erdeneebatar, who is also a Pilsen resident expressed concern about the demolition disrupting his daily life since it could cause “Difficulty of breathing as all the dust and broken down concrete and bricks would no doubt go throughout the air and the entire neighborhood.”
Erdeneebatar described the possible pollution as “a bit of a nuisance one might say in breathing in general.” He added that “the air quality itself would go down as it is and most of the time if you have a lot of tiny substances, whether or not it’s stone, dirt or dust constantly going into your lungs a lot more than usual. It could most likely give a lot of people breathing difficulties from the elderly to kids that live in this neighborhood.”
On a more positive note, Kao viewed the plant itself as a beautiful, cool building that serves as a historical landmark for his community. “I like to maybe take a walk right there [near the plant],” he said.
When asked about the communication from the city or the developers, both Kao and Erdeneebatar said they have no knowledge on the demolition. This sentiment of uncertainty is mirrored by Cailas’s doubts.
“What you’re afraid of is if there is, in this PM [particulate matter or dust], any toxic material that will spread into the community. Again, you do not know that,” he said.
His hesitation can be attributed to the fact that “they did not test the structure for heavy metals that might be, you know, deposited on the walls.”
“Ha ha ha! Big, big issue here. Okay. Surprise, surprise,” Cailas said expressively as he discovered that the power plant is actually within an industrial zone upon viewing the University of Illinois’s ArcGIS map.
He was shocked that no one else has pointed out this critical piece of information that changes this narrative. Since the plant is within an industrial area, the area can not be gentrified.
“Let me be more accurate, in order to gentrify that, you have to change the land use of the industrial zone,” he said.
In other words, this area will have to be reclassified as a residential zone; however, Cailas does not see this as a likely possibility, being that it is not an easy process and is one that requires elected officials to vote. He highlights taxes that the city receives from the industry and loss of jobs as additional hindrances to changing zone status.
When asked what could be learned from the 2020 Crawford Power Plant demolition, Cailas underlines the lack of monitoring of the dust levels and wind direction as major takeaways that could have recorded exposure. Had this crucial tactic been better utilized, the wind speed and direction could have provided data that would have determined whether there was exposure or not.
“So, one thing that the city is doing right now, and give them credit for that, is they’re installing monitoring devices,” he said. “So we’ll get an idea of what’s going on. And not only that, but they’re installing, as well, a meteorological small station to record the local wind direction.”
Nevertheless, exposure to toxic particulate matter can only be determined after the demolition, Cailas said.