January 17, 2025
Chicago, IL – The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter dated January 15, 2025, to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stating that the Corps’ proposed new toxic dredged waste landfill along the Lake Michigan shoreline on Chicago’s Southeast Side is contrary to an Illinois law banning construction of new landfills or expansion of existing landfills in Cook County and other environmental regulatory provisions. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul provided the letter with a supplemental brief filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on January 16, 2025, in the Alliance of the Southeast, Friends of the Parks v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers case.
Plaintiffs Alliance of the Southeast (ASE) and Friends of the Parks (FOTP) filed this federal court lawsuit in March 2023. Environmental Law & Policy Center public interest attorneys represent the Plaintiff organizations. The plaintiffs’ lawsuit is directed at stopping the Army Corps’ proposed new toxic dredged waste landfill, which would be up to 25 feet high, on top of its existing disposal site on 45 acres of Lake Michigan shoreline in the Southeast Side environmental justice community in Chicago’s Tenth Ward, which is already overburdened with toxic contamination. Plaintiffs contend that the Army Corps’ new toxic waste landfill plan on the lakefront violates both federal and state laws. The Corps should be required to fulfill its legal responsibilities to fully and fairly consider better and lawful alternatives.
The Illinois EPA has thus far denied all state water quality permits required for the Army Corps’ proposed new toxic waste landfill. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed an amicus brief in July 2024, largely supporting the Plaintiffs’ positions.
This lakefront site just north of heavily used Calumet Park has long been promised to the community to become a park for residents to use and enjoy after an existing “confined disposal facility” on that site is full, which it is now, and restored.
“This is a big step forward with the Attorney General’s office supporting a law intended to protect overburdened communities like ours. We look forward to a time when we can breathe clean air, recreate in clean water in our parks, and not have to fight every single toxic development from coming into our community.”
“Residents of Chicago have been waiting decades for a toxic waste dump to be turned into a park, as was promised by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Chicago Park District, and the Illinois General Assembly. Parks and shoreland are a precious commodity that we should protect at all costs. We must make our government live up to the promise to protect all Chicagoans no matter where they live.”
“Illinois EPA’s action is a vital step forward to the long-delayed victory for protecting our environment and the Great Lakes and for protecting people in environmental justice communities in Chicago. The Illinois EPA letter is legally correct, and this should bring an end to the Army Corps’ misguided plan to site a new toxic waste dredged waste landfill along the Lake Michigan shoreline in the Southeast Side environmental justice community. It’s time for the Army Corps to recognize it lacks the legal authority to build on this lakefront site and move forward with better alternative solutions.
“Chicago’s lakefront is for people and parks, not toxic waste dumps. The long-promised park should now go forward for Chicagoans to use and enjoy.”