EPA Threatens Chicago Over Dirty Air

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Dec 23, 2008 10:00PM

The EPA has put Chicago and it's surrounding metro area on notice: clean up your air in five years or else.

The agency on Monday released a list of counties and urban areas that violate the revised standard. Six northeastern Illinois counties are on the list—Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will. Also cited are two fast-growing townships in Grundy County and one in Kendall, because pollution there is believed to contribute to the wider problem.

It seems our area of the nation suffers from elevated levels of soot in the air and the EPA is in the midst of taking action against five coal-fired power plants (the EPA must have played SimCity growing up) in the area owned by Midwest Generation. Two plants are located in Chicago in the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods and the other plants are located in Joliet, Romeoville and Waukegan. However, recent tests show that new standards in place have already had an effect on cleaning the air. But if we don't make good, what will the EPA do? While "fines" and "shutting down factories" are the obvious answers, we guess there's also taking our air via Mega Maid.