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Appendix A
A First Cut At Who Is Doing What in The Calumet Region/
Findings of Interviews with Key Actors
People are beginning to recognize that success in any one sphere in a community is contingent on success in the other areas. A strong economy depends on both an available natural resource base and a strong community; it is impossible to preserve the nat
ural ecology without changing production patterns in the economy; and you can't come to consensus on ecological protection and economic restructuring if you don't have a healthy social infrastructure. There are many different skills that need to be assem
bled for the kind of integrated strategy which is required to renew a community or a region.
ECOLOGY
- Resource Management
- Hydrology
- Ecological Restoration
- Pollution analysis
- Mapping
- Geology
- Endangered Species
- Habitat Protection
- Forestry
- Land Use Planning
- Land Acquisition and Management
- Watershed Management
- Pollution Prevention and reduction
- Environmental Remediation
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ECONOMY
- Market Research
- Strategic Planning
- Product Development
- Process Improvement
- Quality Systems
- Engineering
- Sales and Marketing
- Financial Management
- Distribution
- Site Location
- Business Attraction
- Enterprise development
- Workforce Development
- ISO 14000
- Design for Environment
- Green Business
- Eco-tourism
- Recycled Materials Markets
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COMMUNITY
- Community Organizing
- Housing Development
- Asset Mapping
- Crime Prevention
- School Reform
- Community Health Care
- Zoning
- Public Infrastructure
- Growth Management
- Civic Dialog
- Planning
- Community Visioning
- Local Leadership Development
- Community Planning
- Customer-driven social services
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Many of these skills can be found among stakeholders in the Calumet Region. This appendix summarizes the responses to 20 interviews, but only the answers to questions about goals in the region, definition of the region, action plan, and key skills and as
sets. Answers to questions about barriers, opportunities, and strategies are folded into the report. Following the summaries of responses to the 20 interviews are short summaries about additional projects and organizations. Finally, Appendix A ends wit
h summary of key actors trying to improve the Calumet region.
Interview Responses
Jim Landing, Director, Lake Calumet Study Committee
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Build a prosperous future of SE Chicago on the enhancement of open lands and water. Stop the use of the Calumet region for waste disposal so that there is room for new opportunities in the Calumet region.
2. the Calumet region includes:
SE Chicago and its suburbs.
3. action plan:
Work with the other members of the Lake Calumet Study Committee -- a coalition of most of the environmental groups working in the region -- to get Congress to approve a Calumet Ecological Park National Recreational Area by influencing the Department of In
terior's feasibility study, inventorying river corridors/ownership in the Calumet region, and encouraging the National Park Service to become involved.
4. key skills and assets:
History, knowledge about the region and active people within it, 16 years experience directing the Lake Calumet Study Committee, environmental coalition, and research skills.
Jolie Krosinski, Sierra Club Lake Calumet Wetland Program
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Sierra Club: Preserve the wetlands and upland habitat in the region by helping to create some kind of Lake Calumet national area designation. Secure dumps and landfills to reclaim surface area for open space and prevent new landfill development within t
he proposed ecological park boundaries.
Broader group which Sierra Club convenes: Preserve wetlands and other open space, clean up contaminated sites, and encourage compatible development.
2. the Calumet region includes:
SE Chicago in the City up to 95th street, the suburbs as far west as Dolton and as far south as Sibley road, and Northwest Indiana.
3. action plan:
Strengthen the network of conservation activists involved in the Calumet region, exchange information among them, and endorse and support the City Space Plan, Neighborhood Space Plan, I&M Canal plan and other strategies in order to secure maintenance and
preservation of high quality areas, achieve clean up, and encourage compatible development by state nature preserves, private landowners, and others. Perhaps at some point to create an overall conservation plan for the region.
4. key skills and assets:
Experience in environmental policy development and advocacy. A staff person allocated to organizing.
Lynne Cunningham, Southeast Chicago Development Commission
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Make Southeast Chicago a good place to work, live, and do business.
2. the Calumet region includes:
South of 79th Street, east of Cottage Grove, south to the City limits and to the Lake.
3. action plan:
(A) Develop industrial corridors including Calumet Industrial Corridor including wetlands preservation, help with business district management and infrastructure improvements, undertake marketing campaigns, encourage new development, and facilitate lin
kages between residential, commercial, industrial, and recreational development. Fill the Calumet Corridor industrial park near the Lake area with businesses that are environmentally benign. Find businesses for the Burnside Foundry site reuse (this site
is one of the City's 5 brownfield reclamation sites), connect business to residents in Burnside working with Bill Peterman, and work with CDCs and NHS in South Chicago.
(B) Pull people together for a locally-driven development process for their Calumet region
4. key skills and assets:
An outsider's perspective: local with nonlocal perspective, not in 1 of the 2 camps. Have captured the attention of the City with the corridor development project and retail task force.
Don Hey, Wetlands Research, Inc:
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Restore major landscapes as a basis for redevelopment of the region
2. the Calumet region includes:
city, suburbs, and NW Indiana
3. action plan:
Put some stones in the arch, by working with individual landowners who want to create or preserve wetlands on small parcels of land (many of whom are motivated by environmental problems on their property). There should be many such opportunities in the n
ext 10 years.
4. key skills and assets:
Skills in wetlands mitigation and renewal. Knowledge of the people and history of the region. Strong desire to improve life in the region.
Scott Bernstein and Bill Eyring, Center for Neighborhood Technology
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Build a sense of Calumet region into a broad inclusive campaign for sustainable development and environmental restoration. Historically, encourage brownfields restoration and revitalization led by communities.
2. the Calumet region includes:
(A) The Calumet drainage basin
(B) Altgeld Gardens to the West, 95th street to the north, Thorncreek to the South, 169th Street to the Southeast, and the Western third of the Dunes/Burns Ditch to the east.
3. action plan:
Stimulate the creation of something like CNT's Transportation Commission, owned by lots of organizations (bike federation, Openlands, CWED, seniors, Department of Interior, counties, conservation agencies, MSWD, steel companies, etc.), to reach consensus
on development priorities and commit to implementation. Also: (1) brownfields guide for community groups, (2) inventory of 101 brownfields on Southeast Side, (3)resource to community groups active on Wisconsin Steel , USX, and Dutch Boy/Int. Harvester p
rocesses, and (4) assist specific clean ups such as 25 acres near Altgelt Gardens and 200 acres of LTV slag dump between Wolf Lake and Calumet River.
4. key skills and assets:
Pulling together commissions/coalition building, unique competencies in GIS to depict relationships and changes in places (has maps of census, land use, housing, and building permits), and Scott is on President's Council for Sustainable Development.
Bill Peterman and Mark Bouman, Chicago State University
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Be a good neighbor and participant in the revitalization of the region. Enable students to play an active role in the transformation of the region while on campus and after they graduate.
2. the Calumet region includes:
For neighborhood work, mostly south and southwest side. Generally define Lake Calumet region as SE Chicago, Northwest Indiana, and near south suburbs.
3. action plan:
Through the Communiversity, provide paid student interns and faculty from all departments on release time to local agencies and community organizations for improvement projects, such as CEPA, Grand Cal Task Force, Burnside advisory committee, etc. Throug
h the Neighborhood Assistance Center, provide consulting help to community-based organizations to solve small scale neighborhood problems. Through the Calumet Environmental Resource Center, be a repository and clearinghouse on environmental information a
bout the Calumet basin, but focusing mostly on SE Chicago. Through an environmental studies summer institute for school teachers, work on revitalizing Calumet wetlands.
4. key skills and assets:
Students and faculty expertise and experience in the region, best library of regional publications, a GIS lab that is available to community organizations, and a meeting room at the Calumet Environmental Resource Center for up to 40 people.
Doreen Carey, Grand Calumet Task Force:
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Through pollution prevention and sustainable community planning, to work cooperatively to improve the water quality, ecosystems, and health of residents of the Grand Calumet River and its surrounding areas. Create a new balance where traditional industri
es operate in a way that preserves the environment and makes people want to live in the region.
2. the Calumet region includes:
North Lake County and Southeast side of Chicago. The steel-making region of Northwest Indiana. The lake and rivers which bear the name Calumet. It makes sense to cross the state line because the places have similar problems and should be able to share
solutions and because solutions should be driven by the waterways which cross the border.
3. action plan:
because no one constituency can pull off the redevelopment plan needed, Grand Calumet Task Force will promote public involvement and ownership in processes to improve regional quality of life which also include government and industry. Specific projects
include:
(1) co-founder and board member of 3-City Brownfields Effort to use consortium resources to develop sites throughout the region.
(2) coordinate The Grand Calumet River/Indiana Harbor Ship Canal Corridor Vision Project, a 2-year research, visioning, and action process to describe what property is there, how it is used, problems, and solutions to achieving a balance of community and
economic development, recreation, preservation, water quality, cultural, historic and other uses and benefits. Industry has agreed to partially fund the project, as has state and city government. The Grand Calumet River originates in the east end of Ga
ry, Indiana and flows 13 miles through the heavily industrialized cities of Gary, East Chicago, and Hammond and drains into Lake Michigan via the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal. Grand Calumet Task Force's main role now is community outreach. Some see this
project as a first step in a broader sustainable community planning and visioning effort for Northwest Indiana.
(3) Oversee Corps dredge project in Indiana Shipping Canal, dreging in Gary.
(4) Oversee public process on big clean up projects, such as U.S. Steel settlement.
4. key skills and assets:
respected, collaborative, community base, experience working with cities, state, and federal government and corporations.
Ders Anderson, Openlands Project:
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Preserve and protect greenway corridors and open space with a particular thrust in the Calumet region because it contains a lot of key state-wide and regional connections and there has not been a lot of local government action yet to fund acquisition, et
c.
2. the Calumet region includes:
87th street/mouth of Calumet Harbor to the north, Blue Island/Riverdale, 1/4 mile west of Lake Calumet, Little Calumet and Grand Calumet Rivers, south to Calumet City, and 1.5 miles east into Indiana. While Northwest Indiana is out of their geography, th
ere is a need to coordinate with Northwest Indiana.
3. action plan:
(1) Work with communities to implement the Northeastern Illinois Greeways Plan to protect greenways corridors in the region; (2) Link up 10-15 very high quality plant or bird habitat which are privately owned and present opportunities for local greenways
planning (under grants from Chicago Wilderness and U.S. EPA), (3) Through Corlands, prioritize wetlands and recommend to the Corps of Engineers the best opportunities for land acquisition using a portion of the revenue from enforcement fines paid; (4) Fa
cilitate the creation of a national heritage corridor and Calumet macrosite (Jerry is serving on the federally appointed commission guiding the Calumet Ecological Park proposal); (5) Assist neighborhood projects to acquire open space on abandoned or rede
veloping industrial property (ex: transfers from USX and Schroud/Anderson industrial park (Indian Creek Greenway), and (6) plan water trails including the Calumet area, in particular, locating access facilities, under a DNR grant working with NIPSE.
4. key skills and assets:
experience at greenways planning, negotiations with property owners, good working relations with most federal and state agencies, success at advocacy and strategic planning.
Jim Fitch, Jr. President South Chicago Bank and Jim Fitch, Sr.:
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Hang in there until economic development bounces back. In the meantime, be a stabilizing influence in Southeast Chicago.
2. the Calumet region includes:
West to 94, north to 87th Street, city border on south side, and east to Lake Michigan and Indiana border. The expressway is a formidable boundary.
3. action plan:
(1) Work through SCDCom on its board and through meetings with city leaders and investors. (2) Work with Claretian Associates affordable housing. (3) Community development lending for mixed use properties.
4. key skills and assets:
Stabilizing presence, involvement in community and civic activities, support for SCDCOM.
Peter Foote, Calumet Area Industrial Commission:
1. goal in the Calumet region:
To retain and expand industry in the region by improving the business environment.
2. the Calumet region includes:
Western to the west, 75th street to the north, Lake Michigan to the east and I80/170th street to the south.
3. action plan:
To provide the plant managers at 80 area plants with a network of their peers, information about what is going on that affects them, training on issues like environmental compliance, access to resources, and help in solving specific labor force, regulatio
n, infrastructure, and other problems.
4. key skills and assets:
Understand what plant managers need. Driven by industrial company and supplier dues.
Tim Brown, Clean Sites, Inc.
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Protect the Lake Michigan basin
2. the Calumet region includes:
Calumet Crescent/Saddle
3. action plan:
(1) bring nongovernmental stakeholders together around the Lake Michigan Lake Wide Management Plan through the Lake Michigan Forum (community leaders from AOC, tribes, watershed initiatives, sports fishing, academics). The Forum meets quarterly. Its w
ork plan includes input into the Lake Michigan LaMP Process, coordination of a pollution prevention initiative with the primary metals industry, raising the priority of Lake Michigan issues among government agencies, promoting basin-wide information excha
nges, contributing to a basin-wide strategy to promote sediment remediation, launching a basin-wide discussion of land use issues and their relationship to the Lake, help create dialog on the Lake Michigan Mass Balance Study, develop a approach to address
air transport of contaminants into and out of the basin, and stimulate local involvement in basin-wide issues.
(1)(a) track the Northwest Indiana Action Plan (Geographical Enforcement Initiative at U.S. EPA) and provide stakeholder input
(1)(b) bring together oil companies to voluntarily improve environmental management (moving on to pipelines)
(1)(c) hold a basin-wide dialog on pollution prevention in primary metals industries
(2) Chicago Brownfields Forum and Northwest Indiana's 3-City Brownfields Project. Developed mechanisms for community-based clean up for Chicago Brownfields Forum. Exploring potential for Center for a Land Renewal.
4. key skills and assets:
Facilitation skills. Hooked into community-based interests in Northwest Indiana and Chicago.
Layton Olsen, City Innovation:
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Along side of local partners, draw positive attention and resources to the Crescent Corridor and get more people to act to improve the region. At least initially, focus on attracting good-paying jobs for community residents.
2. the Calumet region includes:
the Crescent Corridor
3. action plan:
Host three quarterly planning groups. Job Growth group focuses on ways CI can aid access to premier training. Environmental Improvement group tries to find ways to raise awareness of environmental issues through cooperative efforts, initiatives, and dat
abases. Site Selection and Development group focuses on investor attraction.
Because of limited resources, CI tries to identify points of leverage, such as the following:
(a) encourage University of Chicago and Argonne to put R&D resources into nonradiation-based environmental clean up in Southeast Chicago.
(b) link Northwestern University environmental science students with local community groups.
(c) with SCDCOM, market industrial real estate/ help beef up the industrial property show case, possibly making it nationally accessible through a real estate based information system
(d) encourage the creation of new industrial job training programs. For example, working with DePaul and People for Community Recovery. < >
4. key skills and assets:
Willingness to bring people together and draw in new participants, contacts, newsletter.
Marian Byrne
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Southeast Chicago Environment Task Force: prevent any new sources of pollution and achieve rapid clean up of existing sites
Calumet Ecological Park Association: establish an urban ecological park like a heritage area.
2. the Calumet region includes:
west to the Illinois Natural Heritage Corridor, South to the City limits, east to the Dunes.
3. My personal action plan is :
Stay on top of the efforts described under goals, drawing in whomever can make a difference.
4. The key skills and assets I bring to this purpose are:
experience in the region, past success, tenacity.
Tom McDermott, Northwest Indiana Forum
1. goal in the Calumet region:
working together with local businesses in Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton, Jasper, Pulaski and Starke Counties, use its $1.7 million budget to improve the business climate and attract new business and jobs to Northwest Indiana. Change the perception in Chi
cago of Northwest Indiana. Change the perception of Northwest Indiana in Indianapolis. Change the perceptions of people who live in Northwest Indiana.
2. the region of interest includes:
the 3 county area in Northwest Indiana. More in common with south suburbs of Chicago than Southeast Chicago.
3. action plan:
(1) recruit new businesses to Northwest Indiana (35%), working closely with NIPSCO. Pursue rule changes such as proposing to repeal the business inventory tax in Indiana.
(2) improve quality of life, image, and morale in the region, (25%) by bringing together 41 chambers of commerce as a planning group for how to become one of the top communities in the U.S. Chambers will reach out to schools, churches, service clubs, c
ivic and government organizations to come up with 1997 projects which improve quality of life in Northwest Indiana. The top ten projects will be recognized. The Forum also has the "What is Right With The Region" Project, developing indicators from the
Money Magazine rating system.
(3) improve educational opportunity and become known for educational reform (25%) by achieving 100 teachers with national certification and then get more and a broad school-to-work initiative, acting as coordinating agency for local universities and job
trainers for grants.
(4) work with partners such as Mark Reshkin to improve the environment in Northwest Indiana. (Local Management Initiative in Northwest Indiana: Northwest Indiana Forum, NIPSCO, Amoco, Dupont, Inland Steel, and others want all efforts to oversee river cl
ean up to be coordinated by the Local Management Initiative.)
4. key skills and assets:
support of business community in Northwest Indiana, successes to date, experience and contacts in Northwest Indiana.
Judy Beck, Regional Five U.S. EPA, Lake Michigan Lakewide Management Plan
1. goal in the Calumet region:
for the Lake Michigan region overall, identify concerns, solutions, and priorities for action by coordinated efforts of tribes, local, State, and Federal agencies and other interested parties. Expand toxic planning under the LAMP to encompass a more holi
stic view, including habitat, land use, and sprawl. Promote environmental restoration of the lake shore, particularly wetlands.
2. the Calumet region includes:
near shore, vacant land, focusing on areas that are more apt to be developed or restored (define region by what is possible to accomplish)
3. action plan:
(1) survey stakeholder interests in the Lake Calumet region and then hold a dialog to set regional priorities for ecosystem restoration on the Illinois side.
(2) collect information to help define opportunities, including grants to understand problems at slag sites, wetlands mapping (Wetlands Initiative), land ownership (Openlands), Lake Calumet Grants, hydrological connections/flushing potential (DNR)
(3) Lake Michigan Forum facilitated by Clean Sites
4. key skills and assets:
Lake-wide management perspective, grant authority, broad expertise, relationships with state agencies on both sides of border
Chicago Interdepartmental Brownfields Workgroup:
1. goals in the Calumet Region:
to facilitate redevelopment of Chicago brownfields sites. In November 1993, the department of Environment, Planning and Development, Law, Buildings, and the Mayor's Office formed an interdepartmental workgroup on brownfields.
3. action plan:
The working group launched three initiatives to identify and overcome barriers to reuse of abandoned industrial property.
The Brownfields Forum was formed to devise practical reforms to environmental and economic development policies to improve clean up and redevelopment of contaminated properties. This diverse group of about 100 people, with facilitation by Clean Sites,
came up with 63 recommendations for overcoming barriers to brownfields reuse which will be carried out by nine project teams headed by public, private, and nonprofit entities. 166
The Brownfields Pilot Program was devised to clean up and redevelop demonstration sites in distressed neighborhoods using $2 million in general obligation bonds. There were originally 5 pilot remediation projects, chosen because they represented the best
combination of environmental factors and redevelopment potential. Later additional sites were added. The sites include the former Burnside foundry at 92nd and Kimbark and the former Dutch Boy site in West Pullman. The Department of Environment's Brownf
ield Coordinator is also compiling a database on brownfield sites. 167
The Brownfields Economic Analysis was commissioned to (1) develop economic models that account more accurately for environmental and social costs and benefits of brownfield versus greenfield development decisions and (2) develop decision-making tools to h
elp city government assess the redevelopment potential of various sites.168
David Eubank, City of Chicago Department of Environment:
1. goal in the Calumet region:
To demonstrate that wetlands restoration and eco-industrial activity can co-exist.
2. the Calumet region includes:
Southeast Chicago
3. action plan:
with the University of Illinois at Chicago, under a $200,000 Sea Grant grant, bring stakeholders together to collaborate on an integrated planning effort aimed at environmental and economic revitalization of the Lake Calumet region (Pullman, South Deerin
g, East Side, Riverdale, and Hegewisch) and resulting in the creation of a lake Calumet Reserve (wetlands preserve) and Industrial Park (brownfields clean up used for eco-industrial park introducing state-of-the-art industries that are environmentally sou
nd)) demonstration project in southeast Chicago, public-private partnerships aimed at revitalizing industry, and an agenda for further action.
Tasks for this 2 year project include: (1) survey sustainable development options and collaborative decision-making processes in other metro areas in U.S., (2) collect background data on the Lake Calumet Area, (3) Describe the biological, economic, and
social goals associated with the development of the Lake Calumet area, identify constraints and tradeoffs, and determine priorities by convening a planning forum of all of the major stakeholders in the region, including public and private property owners
, public planning agencies, civic and community groups, and federal, state, and local agencies with governmental jurisdictions or interest in the region.
U.S. EPA, Region V, Northwest Indiana Environmental Initiative Action Plan:
(Also was known as the U.S. EPA geographic initiative in Northwest Indiana, but now is a collaboration with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management)
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Initially, it was a multi-media geographic enforcement initiative designed to integrate EPA's enforcement authorities to compel clean up and environmental improvements in Northwest Indiana.
Now it is a joint effort with IDEM to direct federal and state resources to the region in a way that deals with the major environmental issues facing Northwest Indiana with the involvement of residents and businesses.
2. the Calumet region includes:
a crescent along the shore of Lake Michigan in Indiana. In Lake County, the area north of Route 30. In Porter County, the area north of Route 30 west of Valparaiso and north of Route 2 to the east of Valparaiso. In LaPorte County, the area north of Rou
te 2.
3. action plan:
(1) negotiated about $120 million in supplemental environmental projects, fines and penalties, including a $55 million settlement from Inland Steel Corporation as a multi-media case which sent a message to local firms.
(2) Under the 1995 action plan, improve air quality, clean up contaminated sediments in the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal and Grand Calumet River, reduce the use of toxic substances (pollution prevention), enhance enforcement and compliance with current laws
and rules, remediate land and groundwater, continue to develop and implement the Remedial Action Plan (RAP) for the Grand Calumet River, Indiana Harbor Ship Canal and Nearshore Lake Michigan Are of Concern and the Lake Michigan Lakewide Management Plan (
LaMP).
Note: U.S. EPA resources committed to Northwest Indiana are likely to decline in the future.
4. key skills and assets:
desire to collaborate and coordinate with other efforts. Commitment to providing residents with input into decisions.
Congressman Jerry Weller's Office
1. goal in the Calumet region:
To propose legislation which has broad local support.
2. the Calumet region includes:
3. action plan:
Propose Calumet Ecological Park feasibility study
Propose brownfields tax credits (businesses which clean up get a tax credit in return. Announced in September). Working with Don Schroud on 80% environmental tax credit.
4. key skills and assets:
can propose legislation
Paul Labus, Nature Conservancy in Northwest Indiana
1. goal in the Calumet region:
ensure that what is left of our natural resources are preserved and protected and remnants are managed to maintain diverse biota
2. the Calumet region includes:
At least, Hammond, Gary, Whiting and East Chicago, Calumet City, East Side, Burnham, and the core industrial area by the Lake. As population has moved, perhaps it makes sense to expand south to Merriville/Crown Point and east to the dunes. (the drainage
basin is not a strong case for defining the region)
3. action plan:
Ensure that existing dedicated nature preserves owned by the Nature Conservancy and others are managed for biological diversity. Work with industry to manage unprotected areas they own better, such as DuPont and NIPSCO rights of way.
4. key skills and assets:
Grew up in the region so has a sense for the whole landscape and what an industrial/residential landscape means to people. Has biodiversity expertise and technical resources of the Nature Conservancy behind him.
Mardi Klevs, Southeast Chicago Initiative of U.S. EPA
1. goal in the Calumet region:
Guided by citizens, assist clean up of the region, environmentally sensitive jobs, and beautification
2. the Calumet region includes:
Cook County, emphasizing Calumet region and the West Side
3. action plan:
(1) Fill study: 60 square miles of fill in SE Chicago and NW Indiana. 30 square miles of slag full of heavy metals some 30 feet deep. What is there? What is practical to do with it? Plan to hold a public dialog on the meaning of the fill study and im
plications for clean up standards
(2) Sludge study: what is the environmental impact of applying sludge on slag?
(3) expanded site inspections of 12 contaminated sites : Determining if sites proposed by PCR should be eligible for federal "Superfund" money to pay for clean up. Trying to find ways to improve these sites with citizen help using friendly persuasion o
f owners. Also reconsidering initial decisions in hazard ranking to give lower priority to groundwater pathways and some versions of Superfund reform legislation include site grouping provisions.
(4) Odors: no federal regulations: requires partnership, perhaps setting up olfactory panels with Schools of Public Health, IIT
(5) overseeing Navistar/Dutch Boy brownfield clean up
(6) supporting job training in community remediation, lead abatement and asbestos abatement
(7) serve on Chicago Wilderness Steering Committee
(8) Groundwater studies, including wetlands mitigation study on Big Marsh, and study of potential to aerate wetlands to precipitate metals
(9) sediment hot spots
(10) Chicago Pollution Prevention Partnership has draft and MWRD staff person funded to go around to firms on pre-treatment
4. key skills and assets:
resources, interdisciplinary team
Mark Reshkin, Professor, Indiana University Northwest
1. goal in the Calumet region:
promote regional collaboration to remediate environmental problems, prevent new pollution, and protect, restore, and expand natural resources using community-based environmental management.
2. the Calumet region includes:
Industrial Northwest Indiana, basically the northern half of Lake and Porter counties and the northern third of LaPorte County.
3. action plan:
encourage steel companies to work together on reprocessing and recovery (pollution prevention), advocate for natural resource protection and restoration, encourage U.S. and Indiana EPA to move from command control to community based environmental manageme
nt, act as environmental advisor to Northwest Indiana Development Forum, participate in Sustainability Roundtables, and informally facilitate collaboration in Northwest Indiana.
4. key skills and assets:
unofficial, credible facilitator, regional memory for past 30 years, collaborator with environmental groups, firms, and government agencies.
Other Projects/Key Participants
Calumet Ecological Park Association (CEPA): urge protection of the natural areas through seeking to establish the Calumet National Ecological Park.
Calumet Project for Industrial Jobs: a grassroots coalition made up of unions, clergy and congregations, community organizations and concerned individuals, working to protect and create quality jobs and bring labor and community voices into economic deve
lopment decisions in Northwest Indiana. Projects include Early Warning Workshops to train workers how to monitor their workplaces for potential plant closures, Save Jobs Campaigns to stop plant closures, organizing to pressure clean up and redevelopment,
organizing a Living Wage Campaign to pass city ordinances that mandate that corporations receiving city contracts or tax abatements pay a living wage, and the Community Brownfields Redevelopment Initiative Campaign to organize the community in government
cleanup programs. Is a member of the Northwest Indiana Brownfield Redevelopment Project.
CANDO: Annual Developers Showcase to show companies ready-to-develop multiple-acre sites in Chicago, including the several which are in Southeast Chicago. Brownfields site marketing.
Carnow, Conibear & Associates: an environmental consulting firm which is developing an environmental technician training program for asbestos and lead abatement with community and academic institutions in West Side Chicago.
City of Chicago Department of Planning: (1) correcting the overlapping residential and industrial land uses in Southeast Chicago. The Department has identified large, homogenous industrial corridors that enable private developers to envision large indu
strial parks within the city with many pre-existing infrastructure improvements. Three are in the Calumet region. (2) The Cityspace program, founded in 1995, inventoried and assessed open space in Chicago. It calls for vacant city lots, concrete school
playgrounds and land along railroad tracks and the Chicago River to be converted to green space. Cityspace has recommended to the City of Chicago that the Lake Calumet wetlands receive top priority for preservation.
Citizens for a Better Environment: Promotes pollution prevention in the region and has completed a pollution inventory.
Chicago Center for Industry: 264 acres for sale or lease adjacent to Ford Taurus Assembly Plant and near the International Port. Has TIF designation and in Enterprise Zone. Don Shroud is the developer.
Chicago Legal Clinic: enable equal access to environmental justice by providing legal education, research, representation, and referrals to attorney volunteers to people confronting neighborhood environmental problems. Chicago Legal Clinic has documente
d the problem of multiple site contamination.
For Chicago Legal Clinic, Southeast Chicago is roughly 64 square miles with its north border at about 91st Street, south border about 142nd Street, east border about Calumet Ave. in Northwest Indiana, and west border at Dixie Highway/Vincennes.
Community Campaign for Southeast Chicago: People for Community Recovery (public education and organizing), CNT (redevelopment of brownfields), CBE (pollution prevention), and Chicago Legal Clinic (Clean up of hazardous waste sites) working together on c
lean up, job retention, and economic development alternatives that halt proliferation of landfills, incinerators, transfer stations, and other waste treatment facilities.
Committee for Economic Recovery: a grassroots efforts of local residents operating since 1994 to ensure that residents of West Pullman have a say in Old Dutch Boy and International Harvester sites, 165 acres in the 34th ward in Chicago. It has formed an
advisory council to define redevelopment strategies that meet the area's needs. (Cheryl Jackson, (312)468-6151)
Commonwealth Edison Marketing Department: George Lofton is involved in Annual Developers Showcase to show companies ready-to-develop multiple-acre sites in Chicago, along with CANDO and others.
DePaul University, Office of Applied Innovations: program with People for Community Recovery to train minority youths in hazardous waste removal.
Developing Communities Project: a coalition of more than 20 churches in Far South Side communities which established an economic development committee to provide residents with quality jobs and career training and meet the needs of employers. Working wit
h Olive Harvey Community College to establish training programs.
Greater Roseland Community Development Corporation: Has proposed to build a 177,000 sq. ft commercial/retail center at 720 E. 111th Street, on an 18.5 acre site current owned by Ryerson Coil Processing Co. The $18 million project is partially funded by
public tax incentives and is expected to create 217 full-time jobs. Unfortunately Jerry Chambers, Executive Director, recently died. (Patricia Arnold, (312) 468-0125).
Historic North Pullman: a CDC involved in urban preservation and community improvement, including housing, education and employment and initially focusing on helping local residents to obtain employment with Morrison-Knudsen. Working with Olive Harvey Co
mmunity College to establish training programs.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Program: a NOAA environmental grant program headquartered at Purdue West Lafayette in collaboration with University of Illinois at Chicago. It is still defining its foci, but it might be coastal sustainable development in an i
ndustrialized area. Held several workshops on sustainable coastal economic and infrastructure development in the Southern Lake Michigan bi-state region. Trying to bring Illinois and Indiana citizens together to identify common needs and opportunities.
A working group has formed out of one of these meetings to educate the public about environmental issues. (Leslie Dorworth, Illinois-IN Sea Grant (219) 989-2726).
Illinois EPA: has a federal grant to perform site studies that are a prerequisite to clean up in Southeast Chicago. The Illinois Voluntary Cleanup Program allows remediation by private parties of some former steel sites. This program seems to provide
the certainty investors need.
Illinois State Water Survey: characterizing the nature and effect of groundwater contamination in the region, including the risk of migration into Lake Michigan drinking water supplies. Also studying approaches to cleaning up wetlands.
Mexican Community Committee: a CBO which works with local employers to place residents in jobs, provides employment assistance, and has an advocacy program. Works with the South Chicago Job Development Coalition. Working with Olive Harvey Community Co
llege to establish training programs.
Nature Conservancy: Little Acorns (primary education), Volunteer Stewardship Network, Chicago Wilderness (people interested in and doing projects in Grand Calumet region). Has funding to extend Chicago Wilderness Project into Indiana.
Northwest Indiana Brownfield Redevelopment Project (NWIBRP): grew out of empowerment zone application. developed a model plan for public participation in redevelopment of sites. Received state and EPA grants to implement the model process. NWIBRP receiv
ed a $200,000 two-year grant from U.S. EPA and a matching $200,000 grand from IDEM. Now the Project is trying to bring good-paying jobs to Hammond, Gary and East Chicago while cleaning up the environment by solving the brownfield problem. NWIBRP invol
ves community groups, labor, residents, environmental organizations, business people, and local and state public officials. The community is guaranteed at least 50% representation on the board, include Calumet Project and Grand Calumet Task Force. Patric
ia Wilbur is the Executive Director. The project plans 3 pilot sites. Residents of Hammond and East Chicago have voted on pilot brownfield sites. Gary is narrowing its list of candidates.
Northwest Indiana Sustainable Development Roundtable: 38 community leaders in business, government, labor, and environment trying to develop a blueprint for economic, environmental, and community development in the three northern counties of Indiana, fun
ded by U.S. EPA through the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission and cosponsored by Indiana University Northwest. (Barbara Waxman (219) 763-6060). Has working groups on education/jobs, transportation/air quality, brownfields, energy/environmen
t, and government/finance. Not clear where it will go once its meetings are done. The direction right now is toward creating quality of life indicators.
Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NRPC): NRPC has an environment committee which is merging with its sustainable development committee and will focus on ozone attainment. NRPC is trying to get a grant to inventory sustainable development p
rojects in the region and publicize them to show how much is happening. NRPC has funding for public education.
People for Community Recovery: based in CHA's Altgeld Gardens, convened open strategy meetings to ensure that U.S. EPA Region V's Southeast Chicago geographic initiative understands the priorities of community residents. Published Agenda for Southeast
Chicago in 1993.
United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) of Southeast Chicago: holding meetings to identify community concerns and priorities for redevelopment of the USX steel site in Southeast Chicago, favoring an integrated reuse plan including affordable housing, trad
itional street grids, and commercial development.
Summary of Key Actors Trying to Improve the Calumet Region
ECOLOGY
Protecting Natural Systems: protecting, preserving and restoring the adaptive capacity of natural ecosystems.
Illinois:
- Marianne Byrne (South Chicago Environmental Task Force/Calumet Ecological Park and ex-Clem Balanoff AA)
- CNT, SE Chicago Commission
- Ders Anderson, Openlands Project (Lake calumet opportunity map), 312-427-4256, ext 237.
- Laurel Ross, 346-8166, Nature Conservancy, Chicago Wilderness
- David Eubanks, Chicago Department of Environment
- Henry Henderson, Chicago Department of Environment
- Rep. Jerry Weller, Calumet Ecological Park Advisory Council (Sandy Brattstrom 741-1997)
- Ben Tuggle, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
- The various conservation associations, such as Fisherman of the Upper Midwest
- Lake Calumet and Fox River Special Area Management Plan (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
- Mayor Jerry Genova, Calumet City Mayor (Cal. Ecol. Park)
- Marianne Hahn, Chicago Audobon Society
- John Pastirik (312-431-1089, home: 768-4663) or Bob Kelliher (708-841-0174), Calumet Ecological Park Association
- Jim Landing, U of I.
- State of Illinois Scientific Surveys (Bill Fitzpatrick, always have something going on in Calumet)
- Mardi Klevs, Southeast Chicago Urban Environmental Initiative (SCUEI), Region V. EPA 312-353-5490
- Don Hey, SE side wetland redevelopment strategy: proposal for major research center on shore of Lake Calumet
- Illinois EPA
- LMOS (Calumet region is hot spot for ozone and air toxics)
- Ralph Thornton Cook County Forest Preserve 630-257-2045
- Patty Gallagher, City Space, DPD 744-5822
- Jim Van der Kloot 886-3000
- Jolie Demonti Krasinski, Sierra Club, 312-251-1780
- John Rogner, Fish and Wildlife 847-381-2253, ext 212
- Ken Fuller, USEPA 312-353-3503
- Karen Holland USEPA 312-353-2690
- Judy Beck , LAMP, USEPA 353-3849
- Dick Mariner, NIPSE
- Ed Pierson, Sea Grant, Purdue 219-989-2467
- Lake Michigan Federation
- South Lake Front Coalition (Polly Silburman)
- Calumet Prairie Restoration
- Hegewisch Sports Facility Coalition
- Also, Virginia Capp, Hegewisch, and John Patrick, East Side
- Sue Elston, Pat Jackson, People for Community Recovery
- Joanna Hoelscher, CBE, TRI work
- U.S. EPA 886-6115, wetlands
- Vince Michael, Canal Corridor Association
- Susan Malik, Deputy Commissioner, Dept. of Environment
- Chicago Park District
- Cook County Forest Preserve District
- Calumet Memorial Park District
- IDNR
Indiana:
- Paul Labus, Nature Conservancy, Southern Lake Michigan Conservation initiative, NW Indiana 219-473-9238.
- Doreen Carey, Grand Cal Task Force, (EDF's sustainable communities project) 219-473-4246
- Bob Tolpa, U.S. EPA Region V, Steel Common Sense Initiative (Previously, U.S. EPA Geographical Enforcement Initiative)
- Kay Nelson, IDEM Northwest Office 219-473-6712; behind 3 city project/empowerment zone application, IDEM office Gary 229-881-6712. Also at IDEM: Michael Conner, Commissioner, Tim Method, Deputy Commissioner, Mary Folgum, Steve Davis
- Tom Post, Indiana DNR Regional Ecologist
- Dan Sparks U.S. Fish & Wildlife (measuring contamination impacts)
- Karen Holland, GLNPO USEPA (good feel for how preservation linked to quality of life)
- Congressman Visclosky: has environmental bent/brownfields
- Sally Swanson, U.S. EPA Region V's Northwest Indiana Team Coordinator
- Theodore Stacy, Northwest Indiana Environmental Law Project (219) 477-2078
- Lee Botts
- People Against Hazardous Landfills (PAHLS) (219) 465-7466
- Tom Anderson and Charlotte Read, Save the Dunes Council (219) 879-3937
- Dr. Mark Reshkin, Indiana University Northwest (NW Ind. Sustainable development roundtables-- only place in basin where happening)
- Dawn Deedy, Coastal Coordinator, James Hebenstreit/Steve Lucas, Indiana DNR
- Michele Manny, Hoosier Environmental Council
ECONOMY
Supporting Sustainable Wealth Creation: supporting ways for people to create wealth without harming natural systems or human beings.
Illinois:
- SEDCOM
- CNT
- Dr. Cox at Olive Harvey (entrepreneurship training)
- Jim Fitch Sr.
- Frank Cassell, was at Inland Steel 847-446-2861
- George Mitchco, East Side
- David Holmberg, ACME steel (environmental affairs)
- George Lofton III head, economic development at ComEd
- Peter Foote, Executive Director, Calumet Area Industrial Commission 1000 E. 111th Street, Chicago, IL 60628, 312-928-6000
- Peter Gilbertson, Anaconda & Pacific RR (shortline)
- Sportsfishermen and commercial fishermen (Southeast Sportsman Club)
- Coastal tourism
- Mike Aniol, South Suburban businessman, Hegewisch Chamber President (Cal. Ecol. Park)
- Greater Roseland CDC
- Don Schroud, owner Schroud Development Group (LTV site, Cal. Ecol. Park)
- Lynne Cunningham, Executive Director, Southeast Chicago Development Commission (SEDCom), Chicago 312-731-8755 (marketing the region)
- Jim Fitch, South Chicago Bank (knows the economy, SEDCOM is their CDC)
- 75th Street Business Mangers
- John Schwarke, Chief Executive of Trinity Hospital (supportive, not very engaged, part of Advocate System)
- John Buchanan
- Ted Wysocki, CANDO
- Jesse Jackson, Jr
- Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce
- Communities for Economic Recovery (Little Dutch Boy)
- Tony Ianello, Illinois International Port District
- Ellen O'Conner, Head of Marketing at DPD (how to connect to companies and parent corporations) 744-9476
Indiana:
- Gary Neal, CEO NIPSCO (good futurist)
- Tom McDermott, Executive Director, Northwest Indiana Forum, 219-763-6303
- Inland Steel (owns 1000s of acreas, used to pride self on environmental responsibility supports umbrella partnership, new products from wastes, Chris Brown/John Feckete, Environmental Director, Dave Anderson, Jim D'Orazio
- Kevin Doyle/Clarence Ehlers, National Steel (Midwest Steel)
- Edward Charbonneau, USX Gary Works
- Jim Angstadt/Robert Bilheimer/Tom Easterly, Bethlehem Steel Burns Harbor Plant
- Chris Botern, NIPSCO environmental affairs
- Dave Mitrone, Lynn Flame, DuPont
- Steven Ashby, Calumet Project for Industrial Jobs
- Julie Murphy, AMOCO
- Robert Kovach, Indiana Department of Commerce
PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Designing Sustainable Built Enviornments: designing sustainable local and regional patterns of water, waste, energy, transportation, and land use.
Illinois:
- CNT
- Openlands Project
- SEDCOM
- Calumut Area Industrial Commission
- Jim Bower, City of Chicago Department of Development
- Patty Gallager, Cityspace Project at DPD
- Judith Charlton, DPD Far South District Coordinator 744-0632
- Department of Interior (huge position in land in Dunes, water rights, and rights of way)
- Jackie Harder, Cook County Department of Planning 443-6525
- Jay Frankee, Northwestern (studied intermodal facilities in Chicago)
- CATS Intermodal facilities committee
- Cheri Haramb, Chicago DOT: long range planning process, port authority, evaluating rail corridors throughout metro area for rights of way (in Calumet area, thinking about bikeway to loop Calumet harbor)
- Linda Bolty, CATS, in charge of 2020 plan
- Army Corps of Engineers has maintenance responsibilities
- IDOT and NIPC and CATS
- Indiana DOT and NIRPC
- "Friends of Calumet Regional Airport"
- Brownfield Consortium (So. Chicago Legal Clinic, CBE, People for Community Recovery)
- Beth Ruyle, SSMMA
- Chicago Brownfield Forum
- Tim Brown, Clean Sites (NW Indiana Brownfield Redevelopment Task Force and Chicago Brownfield Forum) 312-554-0900
- Jeff Goldberg (airport study) 646-3344
- Dick Lanyon, MWRD
- Waste Management
Indiana:
- Hoosier Environmental Council (transit NW Indiana)
- Barbara Waxman, NRPC
- Patricia Wilbur NW Indiana Brownfield Program 219-397-5905
- Tim Brown, Clean Sites (NW Indiana Brownfield Redevelopment Task Force and Chicago Brownfield Forum) 312-554-0900
COMMUNITY
Building Civic Capacity: creating opportunities and capacity for citizens to participate in shaping of their future.
Illinois:
- Alderman Buchanan
- GSU Leadership Center
- Neighborhood Innovations Network (Jody Kretzmann)
- City Innovations, Layton Olson, Chicago Director, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Suite 4200, Chicago, IL 60606-9833, 312-263-3001
- Hazel Johnson, People for Community Recovery, 13116 S. Ellis 312-468-1645
- Donna Drynan, Claretian Associations
- Sara Parren, West Pullman brownfields 468-6151
- Community Based Revitalization Project (?)
- People United for a Safe Community (?)
- Mary Gonzalez, Metropolitan Alliance of Congregations (120 organizations, many in Calumet region)
- Eastside Pride
- Mary Ellen Montez, UNO, East Side, also on Port District Board:
Indiana:
- Paul Scully, Nortwest Indiana Association of Parishes
- Northwest Indiana Forum
- Grand Cal Task Force
- Barbara Waxman, NRPC
- Father Thomas Gannon, Heartland Center, Northwest Indiana Council on Urban Affairs
- mayors of Gary, East Chicago, and Hammond
SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Building Human Capacity for Growth and Renewal: transforming education, health, human services, and other systems to support human development.
Illinois:
- Bill Peterman, Coordinator, Neighborhood Assistance Center, CSU, 9501 S. King Drive, Chicago, IL 60628-1598, 773-995-2176
- Delores Cross, President, CSU
- CSU Clergy Council
- Mark Boughman, Geography Dept. CSU
- Dr. Gloria Jackson Bacon, Director, Altgeld Gardens Clinic, 13220 S. Ellis, Chicago, IL 60628, 312-995-7985
- Ramona Lopez/Donna Moralez, Claretian Medical Center 768-1327
- Donna Drynan, Claretian Associates 734-9181
- Keith Harley, South Chicago Legal Clinic 708-731-1762
- Tipawan Reed, DePaul University (training technicians)
- Steve Givhan, Chicago South Development Corporation (redevelopment Intl Harvester, Dutch Boy) 995-7575
- Lynn Hughes, Historic North Pullman
- Dr. Cox, Olive Harvey Community College
- Eraina Dunn, Human Action Community Organization (training lead abatement technicians) 708-339-7902
- Communities for Economic Recovery
- Steve Goldsmity, Developing Communities Project 928-2800
- Tom DuBois, Mexican Community Committee
- John Ownes, Consortium of Churches Development Corp. (Chatam, Roseland, and Grand Crossing)
Indiana:
- Lou Gonzales, Lake County Human Services
- Frank Cison Urban Affairs Center (in Hammond)
- Father Thomas Gannon, Heartland Center and Northwest Indiana Council on Urban Affairs
- Linda Wakshanski, Northwest Indiana PIC (School to Work)
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