A class action lawsuit has been filed ion behalf of virtually everyone who lives in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood against a developer and other companies involved in the redevelopment of the Crawford Coal Power Plant, after demolition of a smokestack at the closed plant caused a “toxic plume” of dust and debris to envelop the surrounding neighborhood on Easter weekend.
On April 15, attorneys from the firm of Loevy & Loevy, of Chicago, filed a class action complaint in Chicago federal court on behalf of people living around the Crawford property.
Named plaintiffs in the action include Antonio Solis, Jose Solis and Juan Rangel, all residents of the heavily Mexican-American community in Little Village, on the city’s southwest side.
Attorney Jon Loevy, of Loevy & Loevy
| Youtube screenshot
Defendants named in the lawsuit include developer Hilco Redevelopment Partners, of Chicago; general contractor Morgan/Harbour LLC; demolition company Heneghan Wrecking & Excavating; demolition company Controlled Demolitions Inc.; development planning and construction firm V3 Companies Ltd.; and other companies involved in the Crawford Power Plant redevelopment project.
The Crawford Power Plant had provided electricity to parts of Chicago since the 1920s. However, the plant was shuttered in 2012, and ultimately acquired by Hilco in 2017.
According to Hilco’s website for the project, the company said the redevelopment effort will ultimately result in a site that has been “remediated” to alleviate environmental concerns harbored by Little Village residents for decades. The project will result in “21st Century commerce and thousands of jobs for the community,” with the “opportunity to bring improved infrastructure and a sustainable design (including, but not limited to, solar panels, infrastructure for electric vehicles and 670 new trees) that will create a significant economic impact to the Little Village Community.”
The company specifically is planning to build a “1 million square foot logistics facility” on the site, which it will call “Exchange 55.”
As part of that effort, Hilco, with its construction and demolition contractors, continued with the work of demolishing the existing plant, even as the city and state entered the widespread economic shutdown and stay-at-home orders imposed by Gov. JB Pritzker in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
On April 11, Hilco and its demolition contractors imploded one of the smokestacks. The implosion resulted in the release of a cloud of dust and debris from the site over the surrounding neighborhoods.
The implosion and resulting dust cloud provoked an angry response from Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other Chicago city officials, who ordered a cleanup and investigation of the demolition.
In a statement posted to its website on April 14, Hilco apologized for the incident, saying the measures it and its demolition contractors employed to contain the dust “were not sufficient to contain the dust that migrated off site.”
The company said it was cooperating with the city and other agencies investigating the incident, and has fired the company that formerly had headed demolition efforts. Hilco said it was providing free cleanup assistance and remediation services to the neighborhood and distributing 10,000 masks to the community, among other compensatory measures.
“We understand, apologize to and sympathize with the Little Village community,” Hilco said in its statement. “The health, safety and welfare of the local community is of paramount concern to Hilco Redevelopment Partners as we work toward completing this project and driving economic viability to the community.”
In the class action lawsuit, filed the day after Hilco issued its apology, the plaintiffs assert the dust and debris coated everything outside their homes and infiltrated their homes. They said they were afraid of cleaning the dust, for fear of what potential contaminants may be stirred up or inhaled in the process.
“… The closure of the Crawford Coal Plant was supposed to represent the end of a major and deadly source of pollution in the neighborhood,” the complaint said. Instead, the Defendants’ actions have caused the very chemicals from the Crawford Coal Plant that … the Little Village community worried about for years to blanket residents, homes, businesses, and open spaces.”
The complaint says residents believe these could include mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, lead, asbestos, uranium, thorium, TPHs and other compounds.
The lawsuit seeks to asserts counts for strict liability for ultrahazardous activity; negligence; trespass; infliction of emotional distress; nuisance; assault and battery; and racial discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The complaint asserts the demolition was not just an accident, but was “undertaken intentionally, with malice, with reckless indifference to the rights of others” in the majority Latino neighborhood.
The complaint seeks to expand the action to include virtually all Little Village residents, who number in the “tens of thousands.”
The plaintiffs are seeking a judgment against Hilco and co-defendants, including unspecified money damages, attorney fees, and a host of injunctions and orders, including those directing Hilco to:
- Provide all Little Village residents with “particulate masks” and “high efficiency particulate air filters;”
- Immediately test and sample the air “to detect the presence of toxins and other chemicals potentially hazardous to human health,” and then disclose those results to the public;
- Stop work until “a revised containment plan has been presented to the Little Village community and approved by the community and the City;”
- “Provide a full cleanup of all affected residences, businesses and common areas,” including street sweeping and washing the outside of all buildings; and
- “Provide alternative housing for Little Village residents for the duration of the cleanup process.”