Quick Hit Ashlee Rezin

Gov. Pat Quinn announced the state’s plans to push for emergency administrative rules for the management of petroleum coke, or petcoke, a thick, powdery byproduct of oil refining that can pollute the air and water.

“We want to make sure that every neighborhood in the state of Illinois is protected from the hazard of petroleum coke,” Quinn said at a press conference Monday afternoon.

The rules will be submitted to the Illinois Secretary of State before the end of the week, Quinn said. The rules are expected to take effect before the end of the month, after a review by the Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB), which has the option to host a 14-day public comment period on the issue.

Quinn delivered the announcement from the outskirts of KCBX Terminals’ 90-acre property, at 3259 E. 100th St., on the Southeast Side of Chicago. The company, controlled by the conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, temporarily stores petcoke along the Calumet River for a nearby BP refinery in Whiting, Ind.

But as uncovered mounds of the gritty substance have grown larger over the last few years, residents of Chicago's East Side and South Deering neighborhoods have complained that the thick dust is being carried into the atmosphere by the wind and coats their homes and lungs.

“This particular neighborhood on the Southeast Side of Chicago has been hampered and hurt by this fugitive dust,” Quinn said. “It’s blown off of these mountains of petcoke, into the homes of good people who are trying to raise their children and make sure they’re healthy.”

When questioned about the health effects of breathing petcoke dust, Quinn said "that's what the rule-making is all about."

"I don't think there's any question that folks that suffer from asthma, or COPD, or pneumonia, or any kind of bronchial infection that affects their respiratory health, having this kind of dust in your neighborhood, in your home, where you to go church or where you go shopping, that's not going to help your ailment at all. It's going to aggravate things and we don't want people to suffer. That's why we're here," he said.

Some of the administrative rules include requirements for facilities to install equipment that monitors wind speed; install dust suppression systems along conveyor systems and any piles that are not totally enclosed; transport petcoke in covered vehicles that don’t allow dust emissions; remove all petcoke and coal that has been at the site for more than one year; and limit petcoke piles to less than 30-feet in height.

“The rules are really imperative at this time ... as we work toward a permanent solution,” said Lisa Bonnett, director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), who stood alongside Quinn during Monday’s announcement.

Also included in the rules are requirements for facilities to locate petcoke piles onto impenetrable bases at least 200 feet inside the property line and at least 200 feet from water sources.

Illinois companies would also have to submit a plan to the IEPA for total enclosure of all petcoke and coal piles to be completed within two years of the rules’ adoption.

“Today is really our first step in putting together some operational practices that will make it better for our community and safeguard our land, air and water,” Bonnett said. Click through for video from the press conference.

The announcement of the state’s emergency administrative rules came about six hours before a public hearing on the city’s draft regulations, submitted last month and under review until January 24. The state’s rules mirror many of the regulations submitted by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Emanuel and Quinn are only two of a slew of politicians responding to community’s complaints and calling on the companies, including KCBX, to better store petcoke and prevent potential air and water pollution.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly (D, IL-2) have each criticized the company’s uncovered petcoke piles and Kelly co-sponsored legislation calling for the testing of the health and environmental effects of the substance.

Ald. Ed Burke (14th) also introduced an ordinance in the Chicago City Council that would have outright banned petcoke in the city, but Emanuel rejected that idea and instead drafted regulations.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the city also filed a lawsuit against Hammond, Ind.-based Beemsterboer Slag Corp., resulting in the company agreeing in December to remove petcoke piles from Chicago and no longer accept, handle or store the byproduct of oil refining.

While a KCBX representative told Progress Illinois the company is committed to working with the community to lessen petcoke dust in the air, the company claims they already have protocols in place that keep the petcoke under control.

“We have a system in place that is working very well,” said KCBX spokesperson Jake Reint.

He added that the company hired an independent lab to conduct an analysis of petcoke in the facility’s surrounding community at the end of November and early December.

After testing more than 60 soil samples, the study suggests that, at this time, there are no dust issues associated with petcoke in the community, Reint said.

The company has spent $30 million upgrading the facility’s petcoke storage facility, Reint said, $10 million of which went strictly toward dust control.

“We have 40 jobs whose families depend on [the facility], and we very much want to protect those jobs,” Reint said. “In addition to being very committed to addressing the communities' concerns, we need to make sure these jobs are also preserved.”

Without adjustments to some of the city and state regulations, Reint added that KCBX would be forced to close its doors in Chicago.

For example, Reint said the requirement to set back petcoke piles at least 200 feet could “force the company’s closure” based on how the facility is designed.

“Practical challenges do need to be addressed,” he said, adding that the company is open to covering its petcoke piles.

Meanwhile, 80-year-old Manuel Soriano has lived in the South Deering neighborhood for 60 years, and said that throughout the last three years, he has had been hospitalized for pneumonia on three separate occasions.

“It’s miserable living right by this stuff,” he said.

Soriano said that if the government does not step in and regulate petcoke storage and, subsequently land, air and water pollution, “people are just going to keep getting sicker and sicker.”

Soriano attended Quinn’s press conference Monday and encouraged the governor's intervention.

“We have a lot of kids and a lot of schools in this area, and the kids are our future,” he said. “We’re slowly killing ourselves, and for what? Who’s doing it? These big companies who don’t care about us.”