Koch Brothers-Owned Company Coats Chicago Homes With Petcoke Dust, Accused of Clean Air Act Violation

From:  EcoWatch 

by Brandon Baker

Chicagoans have long desired action against the owners of the piles of petcoke on the Southeast Side, and this week they finally got it.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that KCBX Terminals Co. violated the Clean Air Act earlier this year, based on dust-wipe samples taken from homes in the neighborhood adjacent to to the Koch Brothers-controlled facility. Wind has long blown dust from mounts of petroleum coke, coating the sides of homes. It’s the exact reasons residents expressed anger at Mayor Rahm Emanuel and city council earlier this year when he proposed loophole-ridden regulations regarding petcoke storage.

Mounds of petroleum coke have been blowing in the direction of residents in Southeast Chicago. Photo credit: Alibaba.com

“We knew the dust was coming from their sites,” Peggy Salazar, executive director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, told the Chicago Tribune. “What they’ve been saying just isn’t true.”  MORE