Illinois EPA Cracks Down On Owner Of Southeast Side Petcoke Site

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 30, 2013 10:00PM

Petcoke piles on the banks of the Calumet River.

One of the companies piling huge mounds of petroleum coke along the Calumet River is now the subject of an investigation by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

Beemsterboer Slag Corp. is accused by the state EPA of violating air pollution limits while handling “petcoke,” overhauling its storage terminal along the river without permits and not filing plans to limit air-based particulate from the mounds so as not to endanger the health of residents who live near it. Beemsterboer’s site is one of three along the Calumet River where petcoke is staged for shipment to buyers across the nation and globe. Residents of the Southeast side who live near the piles have complained of clouds of black dust blowing in the wind. The dust from the petcoke has forced families to bring their children inside and close their windows lest the soot contaminate everything it touches.

The state EPA demanded Beemsterboer to reduce air pollution near the site immediately and file the necessary pollution reduction plans and paperwork to overhaul their terminal within the next 45 days. Most of the petcoke along the Calumet comes from refining waste from BP’s Whiting, Ind. refinery and is housed in two other sites. The state EPA and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan the owner of those sites, KCBX Terminals, for possible air pollution violations, KCBX Terminals is owned by billionaire industrialists and Tea Party astroturfers Charles and David Koch.

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