The Illinois Attorney General's office has filed suit against rock salt, stone and sand seller Olympus Salt, claiming the company has violated Illinois environmental rules by improperly operating its salt and sand yards without an emissions permit.
In a lawsuit filed June 13 in Cook County Circuit Court, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul alleges Olympus Salt Inc., is in violation of Illinois pollution control law for allegedly failing to obtain proper permits to operate a salt facility and allegedly failing to control particulate matter emissions at its Lake Calumet location.
Located at the International Port Authority on Lake Calumet in Chicago, Olympus is a Midwest distributor of bulk stone and salt products for environmental maintenance. According to the complaint, the facility was acquired in 2018 and was operating under a lifetimepermit issued in 2014, but which allegedly did not include the salt operation. According to the attorney general's compling, the salt operation allegedly did not have a cover on its exterior salt hopper which, according to the complaint, releases fine salt particulates into the local environment.
Located in a cluster of industrial sites, truck routes, and shipping ports, the facility lies in an area which is also home to multiple low income housing projects, which commonly occurs in urban areas nationally, according to an EPA study. In that study, such urban areas typically featuring high levels of so-called fine particulate matter pollution are typically populated by Black, Hispanic and low-income residents. Such neighborhoods have been designated by federal and state regulators as areas of so-called Environmental Justice Concern.
In the lawsuit, the Attorney General's office has accused Olympus of allegedly failing to obtain an appropriate permit for its salt operation; allegedly failing to file a complete Annual Emission Reports to the Illinois EPA from 2015-2022; and allegedly neglecting to take necessary steps to reduce or eliminate the release of fine salt particulate matter into the surrounding air.
The state is seeking civil penalties of 50,000.00 for each alleged violation, and an additional penalty of $10,000 for each day of alleged violation.
When reached for comment, an executive at Olympus Salt told the Cook County Record her company had no prior knowledge of the state's issues with its operation, nor had it yet been served with the lawsuit by the state.
However, the executive warned the penalties sought in the complaint could be financially crushing, and kill jobs.
The company declined further comment.
Jonathan Bilyk contributed to this report.