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CHICAGO
– Candace Bell regularly breaks out in unexplained rashes.
The fifth-grader has asthma and mysterious nosebleeds that began
after her family moved to Altgeld Gardens, a decaying public housing
project in southeast Chicago.
Many
of Altgeld’s poor, predominantly black residents believe their
community has more than its share of unusual malignancies and tumors,
severe headaches, allergies, miscarriages and birth defects.
And
for many years, they have complained. Altgeld is home to one of
the earliest grass-roots environmental justice movements in the
nation. Officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have
even praised the efforts of People for Community Recovery, which
was started by Altgeld resident Hazel Johnson in the early 1980s.But
the years of activism have made little difference in their quality
of life, many residents say.
"Air
pollution is with us every day," said Cheryl Johnson, who is
responsible for the day-to-day operations of the community group.
"It’s common. We take it as a common notion, but we shouldn’t."
Altgeld’s
residents direct much of their anger at the Chicago Housing Authority,
which operates the project. They targeted the agency in a lawsuit,
which alleges that residents are being exposed to dangerous pollution
and that the housing authority has not responded adequately.
"These
folks are literally in the epicenter of this incredible ring of
polluters," said John G. Jacobs, one of the
attorneys
representing the Altgeld residents. "These polluters have expanded
time after time … But the CHA has never filed an objection."
Francisco
Arcaute, a spokesman for the Chicago Housing Authority, said he
could not directly comment about Altgeld because of the pending
litigation.
"That
being said, Altgeld is an unfortunate example of how the past CHA
made decisions regarding where it built public housing," he
said.
Long plagued by problems, the agency was taken over by the Department
of Housing and Urban Development in 1995 and returned to city control
last year.
"Things
have changed," Mr. Arcaute said. He said the housing authority’s
new leadership takes environmental issues seriously.
Renovation
plan
In
February, the housing authority and HUD announced a $1.5 billion
plan to replace or renovate 25,000 public housing units in the city.
That plan calls for getting public housing residents away from living
in pockets of isolation by transforming large public housing complexes
into mixed-income communities.
"We
want them to be fully integrated in the fabric of Chicago society,"
Mr. Arcaute said.
While
Altgeld is economically and racially isolated, some of Chicago’s
other public housing projects near polluting industries are in neighborhoods
that are becoming more racially and economically diverse.
Robert
Taylor Homes, for example, is within blocks of older, stately homes
that had fallen on hard times but are now being remodeled. New townhouses
also are being built in the area. Robert Taylor is among the high-rise
projects in Chicago that is slated for demolition and revitalization.
And
several of the city’s federally subsidized Section 8 housing
facilities, which are predominantly white or racially mixed and
are not in lower-income neighborhoods, are close to metal processing
facilities along the Chicago River. The river winds through the
city and historically has been home to a variety of industries.
The
$1.5 billion program to rebuild public housing includes improvements
for Altgeld Gardens, which was built in the mid-1940s to early ‘50s.
Many
residents say that’s the wrong use of the money. The project
should be demolished, they argue, and they should be provided housing
in less-toxic neighborhoods.
The
rows of brown brick apartments are surrounded by what residents
refer to as a "toxic doughnut." There are dozens of manufacturing
and chemical processing plants, smokestacks, a massive landfill
that looms nearby and a sewage treatment plant across the street.
Altgeld is only a short distance from a major interstate and the
heavily polluted Little Calumet River. A wooded area near the river
is a popular site for illegal dumping and is littered with construction
debris and trash.
It
took authorities several years to clean up an area inside the project
where soil was contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyls –
PCBs – from old transformers. Residents believe other contaminants
are still lurking in the ground.
A distinctive
and unpleasant odor often hangs heavily over Altgeld, and residents
say they are sometimes awakened at night by particularly noxious
smells.
So
far, research is relatively sparse and raises as many questions
as it answers.
One
study found a high incidence of asthma and other respiratory ailments
among Altgeld residents and a high rate of medical problems among
newborns. Another suggested a higher-than-normal rate of cancer
in the area. But a report by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances
and Disease Registry, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, "did not identify any adverse health outcomes
that are believed to be related to environmental pollution"
in southeast Chicago.
The
Chicago factor
Some
suggest that the problems at Altgeld persisted despite residents’
activism and agitation because in Chicago, still one of the United
States’ most segregated cities, the concerns of poor blacks
historically weren’t high on the political agenda.
"For
the most part, you’re talking about the disadvantaged, and
if you’re talking about the disadvantaged, then you’re
talking about unweighted opinions and unweighted requests,"
said Dr. Gloria Jackson Bacon, a physician who began working in
the Altgeld area in 1964 and founded the Altgeld Health Center in
1970.
Cheryl
Johnson said she has worked to transform Altgeld from an apolitical
community "that traditionally has not really been active in
fighting against anything collectively" into a community with
a voice.
That,
however, is not an easy process.
Environmental
issues are but one of the many problems confronting Altgeld’s
residents. Poverty and unemployment often loom larger.
"We
have survival needs," Ms. Johnson said. "You cannot talk
about environmental justice issues without looking at economic issues."
And
on the economic front, Altgeld’s industrial neighbors don’t
get very good marks from Ms. Johnson.
"We’re
a poor community, but our neighbors are multibillion-dollar corporations,"
she said. "Why is our unemployment so high?"
She’s
also critical of politicians who are influenced by financial contributions
from polluters and regulatory agencies that she describes as being
"in denial" and reluctant to conduct studies that could
explain why so many people are sick.
Beyond
such suspicions, the limitations of science hamper efforts to determine
why Altgeld residents are sick and whether their rates of certain
health problems are out of the ordinary.
"How
much of it is anecdotal, just coincidence?" said Constance
G. Jackson, president and chief executive officer of the Altgeld
Health Center, and Dr. Bacon’s daughter. "How much of
it is bad environment, i.e., poor diet, heredity, poor living conditions,
drinking, drugs. ... If you look at public housing, you also see
disproportionate health statistics. …"
Cumulative
hazards
Medical
problems may be caused or exacerbated by more than one pollutant,
for example, and the effects may be cumulative over a period of
many years. Trying to measure cumulative environmental hazards from
multiple sources – through the air, water and soil – has
long posed a challenge to scientists.
Rose
Jackson’s asthma developed after her family came to Altgeld
Gardens. Five of her six young children suffer from it. She always
seems to be fighting off one respiratory ailment or another. When
she travels, her health problems clear up. Her doctor advises her
to move, but Ms. Jackson has no money and no place to go.
ElbridgeChambers,
who is in her early 60s, suffers from chronic asthma and has to
continuously use supplemental oxygen. Many times, she said, she
is awakened by a noxious odor before dawn and has difficulty breathing.
"A
lot of our problems happen at night," Ms. Johnson said. "That’s
when you start smelling stuff. Because everybody’s closed and
gone home."
Dr.
Maryann Suero, resources manager for children’s health in the
EPA’s Region 5 office, said sometimes it is difficult to catch
companies that are violating emissions standards. She said some
companies may be conducting operations "on the weekends ...
nights when they know that government workers aren’t there
to do inspections."
But
EPA officials say progress in cleaning up Chicago’s air is
being made. For example, the region’s Toxic Release Inventory
emissions – the substances released from factory smokestacks
that companies must monitor and report to the government –
have decreased substantially.
The
agency also is working with several local residents’ groups
and other government agencies to conduct a hazard-screening assessment.
Community leaders and scientists agree it will be at least a start
in the right direction.
The
study focuses primarily on young children because they generally
don’t have the acquired social patterns and habits that might
affect the health of adults.
EPA
scientists hope it will determine if there are indeed areas in Cook
County – including southeast Chicago and nearby Lake County,
Ind. – where there are unusual concentrations of illnesses.
The findings will be compared with information on sources of pollutants.
The
research may help focus on areas that have a specific problem, but
Dr. Suero warns that finding a direct causal link is difficult.
"We
have so many unknown variables when we’re trying to look at
human health data and environmental data," she said. Still,
the results may ultimately be surprising to some Chicago residents
– in and out of public housing – who do not realize that
they live near facilities that emit large quantities of toxic substances.
In many cases, the industries preceded residential development or
construction of public housing.
Jennifer
O’Neil, deputy director a private firm that manages Chicago’s
Section 8 program, said she was not familiar with the potential
health hazards presented by facilities that emit toxic air emissions,
but would welcome more information.
The
potential threat might add to the "arsenal of arguments"
that is used to encourage people to leave their familiar neighborhoods.
The pitch, she said, could become: "Not only can we find you
a safer neighborhood, and not only can we find you better housing
and better schools and services … But we can maybe put you
in a healthier environment as well."
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