Chocolate Pollution

By Matt Wood in News on Nov 4, 2005 4:06PM

Anyone who has spent time downtown knows about the delicious cocoa smell wafting over from the Blommer chocolate factory just west of the river. Chicagoist used to hike 2.5 miles each way to our job downtown, and the smell followed us door-to-door. You might think we'd have gotten sick of it, but that warm chocolate hug just made us want to stay home and gorge ourselves on cake and brownies all day. Combine that with the smell of the Bay's English muffin factory near our home and we felt like the fat kid from Willy Wonka.

We may think chocolate pollution is wonderful, but not everyone agrees. A neighbor of the factory complained to the EPA about the smell and exhaust coming from the plant. The EPA sent inspectors to the plant and cited them for violating "opacity" restrictions, limits on how much light is blocked by a factory's emissions. It seems that Blommer's is spewing too much cocoa powder into the air as it grinds beans to make that sweet, sweet chocolate.

Some have taken issue with the citations on opacity rules, originally created to monitor emissions from coal-burning plants. Chicagoist wonders what kind of cold-hearted, unhappy soul would actually complain about their neighborhood smelling like chocolate. It ain't like you're living in Terre Haute folks.