PILSEN -- The city has renewed an operating permit for Pilsen metal scrapper Sims Metal Management despite hundreds of calls and comments from neighbors urging Mayor Brandon Johnson and city officials to deny or delay the permit.
The city's Department of Health announced its permit decision Monday, the same day City Council voted on the 2025 city budget and Johnson announced his picks for the Chicago Board of Education.
The city's decision grants Sims Metal Management a backdated permit covering operations from Nov. 16, 2021 to Nov. 15, 2024 at its 2500 S. Paulina St. facility. The permit allows the company to keep operating until the city approves or denies another permit, which Sims applied for on Nov. 14, health Commissioner Olusimbo Ige previously said.
The city issued the permit after analyzing air monitoring data, requested by the Environmental Protection Agency, collected from September 2022 to August 2024.
"If the monitoring data collected shows typical levels, emissions from Sims would not cause either short- or long-term health effects for the community near the facility," the city said in its announcement posted online. "Now that there has been substantial data collected to demonstrate typical levels of emissions, CDPH is issuing the permit."
The city's health agency also analyzed public comments and information provided by the company to "develop permit conditions that will protect public health and the environment."
Neighbors are deeply frustrated and disappointed with the city's decision, slamming the city for "missing the mark" on holding the company accountable for its repeated environmental violations, said Michael Hartnett, a member of the Southeast Environmental Alliance, in an emailed statement.
"Approving operations for a known polluter while communities bear the consequences raises serious questions about whose interests are being served," Hartnett said.
The city's decision comes after neighbors fiercely called on Johnson's administration to enforce local laws and environmental regulations to deny or delay the permit's approval and the state sued Sims for breaking air pollution laws.
Just last week, neighbors again called on the city to complete a health impact assessment that considered neighbors' exposure to other polluters in the area, Sims' proximity to schools and neighbors' health.
"The city has not kept with their commitments to environmental justice," said Brian McKeon, eader of Unete La Villita, one of the groups calling on the city to deny the permit.
"We don't know that those [emissions] levels are typical, and it's just comparing benchmarks. It's not a risk assessment and it doesn't take localized factors into account," he said.
Sims' permit, posted Monday, allows the company to operate following city laws, the Department of Public Health 2020 Large Recycling Facility Rules and applicable state and federal laws and regulations. It states the company must secure or maintain all applicable permits, approvals or authorizations from local, state and federal authorities, warning that failing to do so is "grounds for suspension or revocation."
The company's past violations of city and state laws -- including allegedly failing to comply with emissions limits and installing a stationary shear without obtaining the required permit -- did not stop the city from renewing its permit.
"It's disheartening to see a decision like this that seems to ignore the well-documented concerns and ongoing struggles of residents already burdened by environmental injustices," Hartnett said. .
Health officials acknowledged neighbors' environmental and health concerns, as well as Sims' troubled history, in responding to about 360 public comments collected from 2021 to 2024.
Yet, health officials said the company "is working to meet all requirements, including
implementing control systems to achieve significant reductions in emissions." Sims has also "obtained a construction permit for the shear and filed the correct reporting," officials said in the city's response letter.
"Within legal limits, we are imposing every possible, reasonable restriction to protect public health," the health department said.
The city also set "special conditions" under the newly approved permit, asking the company to install and operate equipment to monitor dust, report emissions exceeding allowed thresholds and report the company's progress in installing air filtration required following a state lawsuit, according to the permit.
But, neighbors are skeptical the city will enforce compliance with its own conditions and hold the company accountable for any violations.
"One of the first conditions, not even a special condition, that Sims has always had is to comply with state and federal law, and they haven't been doing that," McKeon said.
"If [the city] is not going to enforce minimal rules, why do we think [it's] going to enforce stringent rules?" McKeon said.
Going forward, the city will "continue to monitor" the facility's emissions data and compliance with local laws, health officials said.
Other special conditions include a waiver to operate up to 24 hours per day "to prevent excessive stockpiles" as long as the company notifies the city and limiting daily recycling to 3,000 metric tons of materials, among other requirements.
"CDPH is committed to maintaining transparency and accountability as it monitors the Facility's operations and addresses community concerns," health officials said in the city's response letter.
Neighbors previously demanded the city evaluate Sims as extensively as it evaluated Southside Recycling, known as General Iron, when it applied to open a metal scrapping facility in the Southeast Side.
Under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the city denied Southside Recycling's permit for operating a large recycling facility based on the company's track record and results of a health impact assessment. The company later sued the city and then-Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.
After the announcement of Sims' permit approval, Southside Recycling slammed the city for "not applying the same standards to Sims" and approving the permit without completing a health impact assessment.
The city did not consider Sims' "long history of repeated violations of federal, state and city environmental rules and regulations, including at its Pilsen operation, where compliance remains a work in progress," Southside Recycling spokesperson Randall Samborn said in an emailed statement.
"Southside Recycling was built with all the enhanced pollution control equipment that CDPH now rewards Sims for continuing to retroactively install. There is no excuse for the City's grossly disparate treatment of Sims' antiquated facility and Southside Recycling's modern new facility," Samborn said.