Illinois City Contemplates Cleanup of Closed Scrap Site

As the state of Illinois battles former owners of a scrap-metal company, officials for the city of Summit are trying to do their part to clean up the longtime eyesore.

The village board voted unanimously Dec. 1 to pursue an order calling for demolition of buildings on the site of Midwest Metallics and to place a lien on the property.

If the courts grant the demolition request, and the lien is placed on the property, then whoever buys the property would have to reimburse the village for the demolition, officials said.

It is unclear how Summit would pay for the demolition or how quickly it would take place. But the village could seek grant money for the project, officials said.

There isn't a developer interested in the property at this point, but village officials believe that it will be a tough sell until the property is cleaned up.

Midwest Metallics, which declared bankruptcy in the 1990s, shut its doors and left behind an environmental nightmare — a mountain of car seats, tires and dashboards collectively known as auto fluff.

Company officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but have contended that Midwest Metallics inherited some of the debris when it bought the scrap yard from Pielet Brothers in 1993.

In addition to the environmental violations, Midwest Metallics also had a series of safety violations at its Summit, McCook and Joliet plants including the work-related deaths of four employees.

"They have a history of tragic accidents down there. That kind of business is a risky business to begin with. It's a pretty dangerous place to work," building official Bill Mundy said.

Mundy estimated that the pile of auto fluff measures two football fields long and four stories high.

He said the village is taking what steps it can to start the property on the road to development.

"No taxes have been paid on it in years. We would like to see it become a productive property again — somebody who employs people and pays their taxes," Mundy said.

The Illinois attorney general's office in partnership with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency first sued Midwest Metallics to get the company to clean up the mountain of debris in July of 1996.

Matthew Dunn, chief of environmental enforcement for Attorney General Lisa Madigan, said the state filed a lawsuit against the main individuals behind the company, Michael Tang and Cyrus Tang, after the company declared bankruptcy.

"The suit alleges that as individuals responsible for the operations of the companies and partnerships that were involved at the site, the Tangs bear personal responsibility for the violations they participated in," Dunn said.

Those violations are namely allowing auto fluff waste generated at the site to remain uncontained and abandoned at that site, Dunn said.

Strzelczyk estimates that it will cost between $9 million and $11 million to clean up the 33-acre site.

The lawsuit against Cyrus Tang was dismissed, but the attorney general's office appealed the court's decision. The first district appellate court will hear those arguments this week.

In the end, Dunn said the attorney general wants someone other than taxpayers to be responsible for the cleanup.

But if the lawsuit fails, Dunn said it would be added to a list of abandoned and orphaned sites that the U.S. EPA and the state EPA deal with.

"But those funds are limited and much sought after," Dunn said. "Unfortunately, at that point, if any action was going to occur it would likely have to fall to the taxpayers." Daily Southtown (Chicago)