Identifying Environmental Hazards within Southwest Chicago

Table 1: Demographic characteristics of SEA study area.

Table 1 underlines the demographic reality of the study area in comparison to metropolitan Chicago. Worth noting is the high percent of children under the age of 10 and low per capita income.

Map 2. Chicago Brownfields.

There has been a long history of industrial activity within the Southwest side of Chicago. Many of the communities within the study area were formed by immigrants seeking job opportunities in industrial facilities within the regions industrial corridors (Reif, Keating & Grossman, 2005). Over time, many of these facilities became obsolete, and they were abandoned. Industrial or commercial properties suspected to contain hazardous substances are classified as brownfields. These large pieces of land are a major impediment for growth since the potential presence of contaminants complicates their reuse or redevelopment. This long history of industrial activity within the Southwest side of Chicago has fostered a prevalence of brownfields. Table 2 summarizes the number of brownfields that have been assessed (and have yet to be remediated) within each community of the SEA study area.

Data Source: USEPA. Cleanups In My Community (CIMC) Program

Table 2: Summary of brownfields within the SEA study area.

From Table 2 and Map 2, There is a high number of brownfields within the SEA study area. Many of these sights have been assessed but have yet to be remediated. New City contains the highest acreage and number of sites within the SEA area and likely falls within the top 10th percentile of neighborhoods in terms of brownfields.

Data Source: USEPA. Cleanups In My Community (CIMC) Program

Map 3. TRI fugitive emissions (lbs.)

Fugitive air emissions are generally defined as unintended or irregular emissions of gases or vapors released through equipment. The EPA distinguishes fugitive air emissions as emissions that “could not be reasonably passed through a stack, chimney, vent, or other functionally equivalent opening.” (Curran, 2018). Fugitive emissions are likely to disperse locally compared to emissions which originate from a smokestack. People living or playing nearby facilities with high fugitive emissions will potentially face health risks depending on the fate and transport properties of the emitted chemical.

2.2 Data Source: USEPA. TRI Basic PLUS DATABASE. Accessed: 4/4/2020.

Map 4. TRI total stack air emissions (lbs)

Stack air emissions from a TRI reporting facility is the total amount of emissions emanating from the smokestacks per year. A dense cluster of TRI facilities resides within the SEA study area. Many of these facilities report emissions that fall within the highest quartile of emissions reported within the city. Stack air emissions can have more unpredictable travel patterns than fugitive emissions and can influence air quality along a wide area. 

Data Source: USEPA. TRI Basic PLUS DATABASE. Accessed: 4/4/2020.

Map 5. Total air emissions (lbs.)

The total air emissions map shows the amount (in pounds) of all toxic releases to air from TRI reporting facilities. The SEA study area has the highest air releases second only to the Southeast side of Chicago industrial area, which is sparsely populated (see Map 5: enlarge and zoom in). The density of sites (i.e., a large number of facilities within a relatively small area) with high reporting emissions adjacent to densly populated areas is unique to the Southwest side. Challenges arise when identifying potential health impacts associated with multiple exposures to different chemicals.

Data Source: USEPA. TRI Basic PLUS DATABASE. Accessed: 4/4/2020.

Map 6. Total Output (lbs.)

The total output includes not only toxic releases to air, but also the total amount of toxic waste transported or treated offsite. The total output number, therefore, does not only reflect the risk associated with the release of chemicals within the area but the traffic load and diesel emissions associated with the transport of the waste product. When factoring in the total output associated with TRI facilities, the Southwest side of Chicago has the highest amount, even more significant than the sparsely populated Southeast side of Chicago near the Port of Lake Calumet. This list, however, is not exhaustive and does not necessarily include every site within the study area that emits hazardous chemicals.

Data Source: USEPA. TRI Basic PLUS DATABASE. Accessed: 4/4/2020.

Table 3. List of chemicals reported from TRI facilities within SEA study area.

Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA regulates 187 listed air toxic pollutants. Toxic pollutants highlighted in red were recently identified as of particular interest to EPA investigation.

Data Source: EPA (2020) TRI Basic Plus Database

Chart 1: Fugitive air emissions

The pie chart to the right highlights the proportion of fugitive emissions by chemical within one mile of the SEA study area. The primary fugitive emissions are glycol ethers, xylene, toluene and trichlorethylene.

Chronic exposures to glycol ethers have been linked to non-cancer effects including fatigue, lethargy, nausea, anorexia, tremor, and anemia. No information currently exists on cancerous effects of glycol ether. (ATSDR)

Toxicological studies investigating the effects of Xylene have not identified health effects associated with persistent low levels of exposure. High levels of short term exposure have been found to cause "irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat; difficulty in breathing; impaired function of the lungs; delayed response to a visual stimulus; impaired memory; stomach discomfort; and possible changes in the liver and kidneys (ATSDR)."

Low to moderate levels of exposure to toluene have been found to have negative impacts on the central nervous system including dysfunction and narcosis. Studies have shown low likelihood that the substance is a carcinogen.

Trichloroethylene (TCE) has been characterized as a known carcinogen to humans by the Environmental Protection Agency, The International Agency for Research on Cancer and The Department of Health and Human Services. The Agency For Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has found strong evidence that trichloroethylene (TCE) can cause kidney cancer and some evidence that TCE may cause liver cancer and malignant lymphoma (ATSDR).

Data Source: USEPA. TRI Basic PLUS DATABASE. Accessed: 4/4/2020.

Chart 2: Stack air emissions.

The pie chart to the right highlights the proportion of stack air emissions by chemical within one mile of the SEA study area. The primary stack air emissions are glycol ethers, N-butyl alcohol, and zinc . The EPA has determined both N-butyl alcohol and zinc to be not classifiable as to their carcinogenicity (ATSDR).

While zinc is an essential element of the human diet, ingestion at levels between 10-15 times above the amount needed for health can lead to negative health outcomes. Inhalation of large amounts of zinc has been found to cause metal fume fever and exposure is likely to cause skin irritation at high enough levels.

Data Source: USEPA. TRI Basic PLUS DATABASE. Accessed: 4/4/2020.

Chart 3: Total air emissions.

The pie chart to the right highlights the proportion of total air emissions by chemical within one mile of the SEA study area. The primary air emissions within the area are glycol ethers, n-butyl alcohol, xylene, toluene, trichlorothylene and methanol.

Data Source: USEPA. TRI Basic PLUS DATABASE. Accessed: 4/4/2020.

In order to study the relative pollution burden within the SEA study area a relative pollution burden (RPB) metric was created for each block group. This metric includes all of the TRI emissions along with the acreage of brownfields as an indicator of pollution burden for local communities.  Each variable was standardized (zero to 100 scale) and they were then added to yield the RPB.  The relative pollution burden index (RPBI) is derived by multiplying the RPB by the standardized sensitive population number for each block group. For this specific application, the number of children less than 10 years old were used. The distribution of this index is shown in Map 7 with 5 levels (classes) of burden. The SEA area is highly ranked in terms of relative burden and its populated areas are surrounded by block groups with a high levels of pollution burden.

Table 4: TRI Facilities within block groups with the highest relative pollution burden index (RPBI) rankings.

The adjacent tables highlight reported emissions from TRI facilities by pounds reported from the 2018 reporting year. These facilities, their adjacency to populated areas and the risk scores associated with the chemicals they have reported in part contribute to the elevated rankings within the RPBI model.

Table 4: Data Source: USEPA. TRI Basic PLUS DATABASE. Accessed: 4/4/2020.

Location is a major source of the SEA Communities' burden problem. It is the only densely populated residential area within Chicago that is surrounded by a highway (I90) and large areas of industrial corridors (gray in left map) and Planned Manufacturing Districts (PMD; purple in left map). PMD areas are designated for heavy industrial uses. This explains the heavy TRI presence in the Pilsen and McKinnley/Bridgeport/New City (Stockyards) communities (see Map 1). The five largest PMDs (Stockyards, Northwest, Kinzie, Calumet, and Pilsen) contain more than 70 percent of all PMD building space in the Chicago area.

The adjacent graph, from the 2017 Industrial Corridor Modernization Initiative, underlines another dimension of the PMD problem for the SEA area; namely that the Pilsen and Stockyards communities contain almost 40% of the entire cities PMD building space.