Illinois Deserves the Truth

Illinois News Roundup

IL Attorney General Lisa Madigan is suing seven companies responsible for mortgage scams targeted at struggling homeowners.

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After a derailment killed two and injured 80 others, Metra agreed to pay the families of the deceased $11 million.

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A Cicero woman overdosed and died from a leaky “pain relieving” skin patch in 2004.  Her family just won their suit against the manufacturers.

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A Chicago woman who contracted HIV from her kidney donor sued the hospital, which never told her the donor was high-risk.

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Apparently, there is a coal company downstate that has no qualms about the civil justice system.  It filed a lawsuit against federal pollution regulators.

EPA Tightens Lead Rules, Thanks to Court Order

The EPA just came out with a new pledge to cut airborne lead emissions around the country by 90% - they're reducing the emissions limit from 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter to 0.15 - for whatever that's worth.  This is a plus for the environment, public health, childhood development, and down the road is even projected to be a moneymaker.  But don’t think the EPA were the sole champions of the cause.  From a MSNBC report,

Lawsuit led to action
The EPA acted after a lawsuit brought by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment led a federal court in 2004 to order a review of the lead standard. The group's members live near a major industrial lead emitter.

The court later directed the EPA to issue its final rule by midnight Wednesday.

Yes, it first took a lawsuit from a concerned St. Louis-area couple and environmental activists to get the ball rolling (we mentioned this in a previous blog post here).  The civil justice system - once again working to protect us all.

Illinois News Roundup

Just over the state border in Whiting, Ind., federal regulators are taking BP to task for expanding its refinery in violation of the Clean Air Act.

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The Tribune rolled out an editorial about the shady connections between "unbiased" medical experts and the drug companies that pay them.

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Schaumburg-based Motorola must answer to former employees who claim toxic chemicals from their workplace caused birth defects in their children.

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In St. Louis, a sixteen-year-old girl was harassed online to the point that she had to seek help from a mental health clinic.  Her father is asking the court to force several social networking sites, which hosted the abusive exchanges, to help him find out exactly who was responsible.

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Another Chicago priest is accused of child molestation.  His victims brought a suit against him last year, and now he faces a criminal trial.

Toxic News from the Metro East

When it comes to accommodating pollutive oil refineries, nobody competes with Texas or Louisiana, two states deep in the heart of oil country.  But just take a gander at the new Top 10 list of American refineries with the most carcinogenic pollution, compiled by the nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).  You’ll notice that while Texas and Louisiana refineries occupy 9 of the 10 slots, they just missed the clean sweep.  Way to represent the other 48 states, Illinois!  That’s right, the Conoco Philips refinery in Roxana/Wood River/Hartford, Illinois releases more carcinogenic pollution than any refinery outside the Sun Belt.  The EIP report also found that millions of pounds of carcinogenic emissions are probably being underreported, and that actual emissions could be 100 times higher than industry estimates.

Placement on this list alone is a pretty ugly distinction for the Wood River refinery, but the story gets worse.  You may recall, the Illinois EPA recently granted this very facility the “crucial air permit” it needed for a $2 billion expansion project to “increase the refinery’s capacity”.  So, while the refinery already leads the region in toxic output, Conoco only plans to enlarge it.

It’s worth noting that the expansion project has actually been significantly improved since it was first proposed.  Last year, environmental groups challenged Conoco's request for a new permit by filing a petition to the EPA.  The action led the EPA to admit their complaints were justified and forced Conoco to negotiate a new agreement.

That agreement led to a revised permit that environmental groups say sets a clean air benchmark for other refineries to meet in the future. Among other things, the new permit is expected to net a 500-ton-a-year decrease in air pollution and requires a cutting-edge monitoring system to be installed.

The agreement also requires Conoco Phillips to fund $3.4 million in "green" projects throughout the Metro East area.

I guess it is the least they can do.

There's Something in the Air

I know Chicago isn’t the cleanest city in America, but it has never exactly struck me as Pollution Central, either.  This morning, the Tribune gave me cause to rethink.  It turns out Cook County has the most dangerous air in the country, according to data from the EPA.

People living in Chicago and nearby suburbs face some of the highest risks in the nation for cancer, lung disease and other health problems linked to toxic chemicals pouring from industry smokestacks, according to a Tribune analysis of federal data.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spent millions of dollars to assess the dangers that air pollution poses but has failed to fulfill promises to make the research more accessible to the public. So the Tribune is posting the information on its Web site, where users can easily find nearby polluters and the chemicals going into their air.

Those who look up Cook County will see it ranked worst in the nation for dangerous air pollution, based on 2005 data. The Tribune also found Chicago was among the 10 worst cities in the U.S.

The factory with the highest risk score in Chicago is a steel mill on the edge of upscale Lincoln Park, a neighborhood where it isn't uncommon to find people buying organic dog food.

Hats off to the Tribune’s hired watchdogs for bringing the findings to light.  Shame on the EPA for keeping us in the dark.

Fish Poisoners Beware

Lisa Madigan announced last week that the U of Illinois, the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District, and private contractor CEDA will pay $65,000 to cover the costs of releasing toxic wastewater into a stretch of the Vermilion River in central Illinois.  Their accident killed scores of aquatic life.  I don’t know about you, but I love that our Attorney General’s office fights water pollution in the name of all fishes. 

I only wish our federal government worked that hard to keep water clean.  Note to the EPA: we know you don't think it's necessary, but please, take the rocket fuel out of our drinking water.

Illinois News Roundup

A coalition of Bridgeton, MO residents forced an airport in St. Louis to admit it broke federal regulations when it used a cheap method of asbestos-removal in tearing down houses.

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AFSCME is taking on Gov. Blagojevich over what they see as his illegal decision to close the correctional center in Pontiac.

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LA Times employees filed a lawsuit against Tribune Company CEO and Chicago pooh-bah Sam Zell over a moneymaking scheme that came at the expense of his employees.

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Various lawmakers held a town hall meeting in Marion about their VA medical center, where at least nine patients died from poor care.  At least one development came out of it:

Rep. Jerry Costello, an Illinois Democrat, told reporters Saturday he would push to have the government's final investigative findings sent to the Justice Department for consideration of criminal charges.

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In St. Louis, BJC Healthcare agreed to compensate uninsured patients who the hospital charged as much as three times more than patients with insurance.

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Thanks to the tenacity of environmental groups, ConocoPhillips has agreed to “green up” communities downstate.

Court Says EPA Can't Prevent States From Monitoring for Cleaner Air

Cross post from The Pop Tort by Emily.

Great news for people, animals and other organisms trying to respirate!

This week, a U.S. Court of Appeals decision threw out a Bush administration rule that exempted major air polluters from EPA monitoring and prevented states and local agencies from enacting better monitoring instead.

Given the EPA's lackluster performance - the decision finds that the agency "failed to fix inadequate monitoring requirements ... and prohibited states and local authorities from doing so" - we can all breathe a sigh of relief (hah!) that better monitoring is on its way.

And a tip of the hat to the air-protecting rockstars at EarthJustice for expertly using the civil justice system. As Earthjustice attorney Keri Powell put it: "This is a huge victory for everyone who breathes. We can't have strong enforcement of our clean air laws unless we know what polluters are putting into the air."

For more information on this case and others, check out CJ&D's recent study: How the Civil Justice System Protects Environmental Health

Illinois News Roundup

Chicago-based power plant corporation Midwest Generation was recently granted permission from the EPA to clean up the giant pile of asbestos-laden sand sitting on its property.  They want to sell the land to road builders but surprise surprise!—they aren't sure it's safe enough to turn over. (Tribune)

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The Marion VA hospital story (read about it here and here) just gets more unbelievable all the time.  A new report by the VA’s investigations board says hospital administration ignored warnings about the questionable credentials of several of its doctors—including those of Jose Veizaga-Mendez, the surgeon linked to numerous patient deaths.  See the press release from Senator Durbin’s office.

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Amerigroup Corp. agreed to pay $225 million for defrauding the Medicaid program when it refused to enroll pregnant women in its Illinois managed care program.

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The wife of a former BP Amoco employee in Naperville is suing the oil giant for causing her husband's death from brain cancer.  She's only the latest more than 20 to come forward with such stories, which include several deaths.  "At least seven former employees of the [Naperville] research center have died from a variety of cancers allegedly caused by toxins they were exposed to while working at the facility."  (Sun-Times)

Illinois News Roundup

Chicago drug maker Abbott Labs settled a lawsuit with AIDS patients over a 400% price hike of one of their HIV drugs.  The settlement will pay between $10 and $27 million. (Crain’s Chicago)

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United Airlines wasn't too pleased with their pilots' organized challenges to staff cutbacks.  The airline filed a lawsuit against the pilot's union yesterday in Chicago. (Tribune)

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This nurse's aide was found guilty of stealing almost $20,000 from an Alzheimer’s patient at an Elmhurst senior care center.  (Tribune)  Meanwhile, this nurse's aide stole $7,000 from a quadriplegic Chicago woman. (Sun-Times)

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Without serious reforms, climate change could cost Illinois at least $43 billion annually by the 2030s. (Tribune)

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Hartford, IL residents won a battle against yet another oil company responsible for leaving toxic waste under the town.  This time it's Apex Oil.  The cost of cleaning up their mess?  $150 million. (Belleville News-Democrat)