For Oscar Ortega, a 59-year-old resident of Chicago’s South Deering neighborhood, sitting on the porch was once a simple pleasure until odors from a nearby industrial plant became so overwhelming that opening windows, hosting cookouts, or even spending time outside no longer felt possible.
Those odors — along with separate landfill fires nearby — are at the center of lawsuits filed in Illinois in early August.
Here’s what to know
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Chicago officials filed a lawsuit on August 5 against A-F Acquisition LLC, which does business as Pullman Innovations, alleging permit violations, an unpermitted boiler, illegal air pollution, and excessive odors, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Raoul announced a second lawsuit on August 7, accusing three companies connected to fires at the Harbor View waste facility — a closed landfill roughly four miles away…