Later in 2009 I was informed by friends about the soil quality in Pilsen and they told me that the plant the entire neighborhood can see billowing smoke at all times was The Fisk, a coal burning plant that supplies electricity for the surrounding area. I learned that the soil is so damaged with chemicals from that coal factory's fallout, or flyash, (the solid particles that fall from the waste passing into the air from the smoke stacks) that it's not safe to ever grow plants or vegetables.
At that point, I pieced it together. That incurable dirt in our house this past summer was the flyash from the coal factory lining the floor of our house every day through our open windows. Every single day there was literally black dust of mentionable accumulation every day in the broom pan.
"Older coal-fired power plants without effective fly ash capture are one of the largest sources of human-caused background radiation exposure. When coal is burned, uranium, thorium and all the uranium daughters accumulated by disintegration — radium, radon, polonium — are released." (s)
The Fisk
The Fisk
7 comments:
now all of your friends, from fear of radiation and deadly ash, will never come to visit again!
With the warm weather we have started keeping our windows open. I usually have a glass of water by my bed. If I leave it there for more than a day it gets a layer of dust on it. Now I know what it is.
YIKES!!!
the reason i didn't move to pilsen...
It doesn't happen solely in Pilsen, Michelle. Much to my surprise there is industry in Lincoln Park, a steel factory, that does nearly the same thing for their air. I didn't suspect that would be the case for a higher income area.
oh i know (though i didn't know there was one in lincoln park)--i just can't believe those things still exist at all. thanks for more info.. i'm glad you're writing about it.
The same thing is happening in Little Village with the Crawford coal power plant.
UIC performed a study. I wrote about this a year ago: http://www.stevevance.net/planning/2009/03/pilsen-pollution/
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