After planned migrant camp is scrapped over toxins at Brighton Park site, neighbors want to know how city is going to protect them

Sofia Salinas’ home backs up to a vacant lot at 38th Street and California Avenue in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood.

When the city announced a plan to build a migrant camp on the lot, some residents were angry they weren’t consulted. But when that plan was scrapped after the discovery of high levels of toxic metals, including lead, Salinas said it felt like “a slap in the face.”

A first-time homeowner who has lived in Brighton Park for four years, Salinas said she and other residents have been working to improve the area through regular community meetings, welcoming the opening of a new church and helping neighbors keep up their homes. Now she questions whether those efforts have been in vain.

“You don’t know whether or not you want to stick around. You don’t know whether or not to put your money into building a community when it’s toxic. It’s like, ‘Should I even be living here?’” Salinas said.

Ald. Julia Ramirez, 12th, whose ward includes Brighton Park and McKinley Park, said the 38th and California lot was once a freight terminal for the Alton Railroad. During that period, it housed a zinc smelter — an operation involving potentially toxic processes that use heat and chemicals for metal extraction.

Ramirez said diesel tanks also used to be stored underground, but those have since been removed.

In mid-October, residents said they woke to the sound of trees being cut down and the installation of bright overhead lights at the vacant lot.

Maria Rolon, a resident of Brighton Park for 54 years whose home is adjacent to the lot, said the community was not informed of the city’s plans to use the site to house migrants until construction had already begun.

“I was very upset,” Rolon said. “I’m a senior, even my daughter lives next door. I have other kids. … That was my main concern.”

The city signed a six-month land-use contract Oct. 26 for the lot owned by Barnacres Corp., a Markham-based company run by Otoniel “Tony” Sanchez. Sanchez was also a donor to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, giving $1,500 to the mayor’s political fund two months before the lease signing. Johnson’s political advisers have said that money was being returned and that city workers involved in scouting the location did not know about the donation.

[ Construction on Brighton Park migrant camp to begin with state involvement this week despite aldermanic opposition ]

The city planned to temporarily house close to 2,000 migrants in a winterized base camp on the 9-acre property. Residents protested the city’s plan day and night, citing safety and environmental concerns due to the site’s history of industrial use.

After open records requests, the city released on Dec. 1 an 800-page environmental assessment report by outside contractor Terracon Consultants, which found high levels of mercury, lead, arsenic and manganese and traces of cancer-causing PCBs, among other contaminants.

A spokesperson for Johnson told the Tribune the site is “safe for temporary residential use.”

However, after the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency reviewed the report, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the city would not use the Brighton Park site as a migrant camp citing “serious environmental concerns” in a statement released by the governor’s office Dec. 5.

[ Gov. J.B. Pritzker won’t proceed with Brighton Park migrant camp, citing ‘serious’ environmental concerns ]

According to the report, to limit access to the contaminated soil, contractors covered the entire lot with a 6-inch stone layer meant to provide an “engineered barrier” that would be routinely inspected and maintained by city workers.

Despite the addition of the stone barrier and the mayor’s statements that the site is safe for residential use, homeowners on 38th Street are not convinced the land isn’t toxic.

Ermelinda Quiles, a resident of Brighton Park for 49 years, has lived across from the vacant lot for most of her life.

Quiles said she struggles with health problems she believes are linked to the air she breathes as she lives 50 feet from the former industrial site.

“We all got sick all the time, I got very sick for a month, and my old friend (next door) died. They found out she had cancer,” Quiles said.

Javier Lopez, a Brighton Park resident whose home sits adjacent to the vacant lot, said the city had already initiated excavation at the site to evaluate plumbing installation for the winterized tents that were going to be set up for migrants. Lopez said the community is concerned the city exposed toxins in the soil when they began digging into the contaminated ground.

“We’re concerned, I mean, we’re concerned about our water; they shut off our water for a few hours to dig back there,” Lopez said. “I’m sure the pipes are surrounded by these contaminants. So it’s very, very scary that that stuff was coming into our house.”

Salinas said residents were notified the city would begin water testing in October. According to a flyer distributed to residents, they were instructed to flush out their water to mitigate potential lead levels after pipe disturbances. This involved opening every faucet in their homes for 30 minutes every two weeks over a three-month period.

“They were like, ‘You’re gonna have to flush out your water for the next three months, but don’t worry, it will only be like $1 each time you do that,’” Salinas said. “I don’t care if it’s $1 or a penny, I shouldn’t have to pay to flush my water out. Now this is scary to me.”

Quiles said her water has consistently been discolored since the city began digging at the lot.

“The water comes out brown, and (there’s) like snowflakes, I gotta let it run for at least 20 to 30 minutes,” Quiles said. “I had to buy water to be able to cook and because I’m a very sick person, I got a lot of health problems.”

[ As other cities dig up pipes made of toxic lead, Chicago resists ]

Many residents on 38th Street said the city’s plan to house migrants at the vacant lot was done hastily and without community input.

Lopez said residents feel they were “left in the dark” on the city’s plans for the lot and the potential environmental impacts from disturbing the contaminated land.

“We’re kind of wondering what the next step is gonna be,” Lopez said.

Ramirez said she is following up with Johnson’s administration on whether plans will be developed to clean up the site.

“The highest priority for me is if we did find toxicity, contamination in the soil, that they’re able to provide full information on the details of it, you know, what can be done or what has been done,” Ramirez said. “These are ongoing conversations, and I will be having more conversations with people in the administration about this.”

Some residents are doubtful the city will clean up the site.

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“I can guarantee you they’re just gonna leave it like it is,” Rolon said.

Ramirez said she is discussing what it means to be an environmental justice zone with the community.

[ Residents call Chicago report that maps neighborhood pollution flawed because calculations don’t include industrial corridors ]

In September, the Johnson administration released a cumulative impact report that is intended to capture how exposure to toxins, socioeconomic factors and health conditions vary throughout the city. The most burdened census tracts, which are designated environmental justice neighborhoods, would be subject to special considerations in future zoning and permitting decisions. Brighton Park is among these neighborhoods.

Ramirez also said lead testing kits are being distributed, and she is exploring ways to use the vacant lot for the neighborhood’s benefit.

Now that migrants won’t be living at the site, residents hope their concerns won’t be ignored.

“What I think (the mayor’s) No. 1 priority needs to be is safety. It can’t be temporarily safe. It needs to be safe,” Lopez said. “It’s not good enough just to get the migrants not to go through it. Now you gotta follow through all the way.”

Samantha Moilanen is a freelancer.