A coalition of environmental groups are accusing the city of Chicago of causing environmental injustice by relocating polluting industries to low-income neighborhoods.
The groups on Thursday filed a discrimination complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The move was prompted by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision last September to facilitate closing a metal-shredding facility in an affluent area of the city, and opening a new industrial facility from the same company, Reserve Management Group, in the city’s Southeast Side.
That area is a recognized environmental justice community with some of the highest levels of airborne toxic heavy metals in ...