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NEWS & LETTERS, JUNE 2003
Clean air struggleChicago--The largest sources of air pollution and mercury in Chicago are the Crawford & Fisk coal burning electrical power plants in Little Village and Pilsen owned by Edison International's Midwest Generation. These neighborhoods are the heart of Chicago's Mexican immigrant community. A 2001 Harvard School of Public Health study estimates that there are 2,800 asthma attacks, 500 emergency room visits and 41 premature deaths every year due to poor air quality from these two plants. Those most affected live in Little Village and Pilsen, but people who live throughout Chicago also breathe dirty air from the two plants. The mercury from these plants gets into the fish we all eat from our rivers and Lake Michigan, poisoning our nervous system. The tons of carbon dioxide produced by these plants are Chicago's biggest addition to global warming. The Pilsen/Southwest Side Local of the Green Party, the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and students from Farragut, Benito Juarez, Frances Parker and Evanston Township High Schools are organizing to fight these polluters. Last Spring Chicago Alderman Ed Burke proposed a new law
to the Chicago City Council that would clean up most of the air pollution coming
from the Crawford and Fisk Power Plants. But Mayor Daley and the city's
Department of the Environment have stopped this from moving forward. We need to
let them know that we want this law passed now! --Activists |
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