Illinois AG Secured Settlement Addressing Harm Caused by Improper Smokestack Demolition at Retired Coal Plant

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul secured a settlement resolving a lawsuit against a developer, Hilco Redevelopment Partners, and two contractors, MCM Management and Controlled Demolition Inc., over the improperly conducted demolition of the smokestack of a retired coal-fired power plant in Chicago. As noted in the complaint, the companies “failed to take adequate precautions to minimize the dispersion of particulate matter from the felling of the smokestack,” which allowed “a dense cloud of particulate matter and other presently unknown substances the length of the smokestack to rise up from” the demolition site and spread over an adjacent neighborhood. Under the terms of the settlement, the companies will pay a total of $370,000 to a local community health center, and will comply with dust abatement plans for the remainder of the demolition project.