A member of Sheffield Neighbors Association has forwarded this update: Ted/SNA: One additional thought regarding Lincoln Yards: General Iron. Almost every morning, Lincoln Park/SNA wakes up to the smell of an industrial odor emanating from GI. That is because the prevailing winds, particularly in the summer time, originate from the southwest and flow northeast. That puts LP/SNA in the direct path of the airborne pollutants generated by the operations of GI. This has been going on for decades. We finally decided to test the air quality around GI and the results will be made public shortly. That’s the good news. The bad news is I am afraid of finding out what we have been breathing. It is important to understand how the operations of GI works. We all know about the scrappers that traverse our alley’s everyday looking for household scrap or rummage through dumpsters of homes under construction. Arguably a good thing from a recycling standpoint. However, what our community may not know is that every day there are dozens of semi’s lined up for blocks down Kingsbury with UNKNOWN origins of industrial scrap metal that will be received by GI, crushed into tiny pieces and thrown airborne by high speed conveyor belts into 80’ tall stockpiles as well. Any company in the Midwest (or country for that matter) that wants to dispose of industrial scrap knows GI will take any scrap without screening for pollutants. Further exacerbating the situation is that GI’s dust mitigation consists of 7 snow making machines that when working, throw off minimal water to control the dust. Minimal dust control is better than no dust control but inexplicably, the machines are not on all the time. Winter time means virtually no dust control is taking place because machines making snow doesn’t help with dust control. GI is operating what is tantamount to an unregulated landfill. That may be okay if their operations were contained but dispersing metal dust throughout the neighborhood is exposing families and children including businesses to unnecessary health risks. Lincoln Park/SNA is not GI’s dumping ground. In this petition ( https://www.change.org/p/residents-of-lincoln-park-general-iron-does-it-belong-in-lincoln-park), there is a YouTube video where you can see the old cars (fluids), refrigerators (Freon), batteries (lead), etc. being processed for crushing. Separate from what we know by seeing the video, it’s what we don’t know. We don’t know what we are breathing and what is ending up in the river (see pictures in the petition of scrap overflowing barges likely contaminating our river) because we have reason to believe that no testing of scrap takes place. If no screening takes place, then none of the scrap is rejected for reasons such as toxic coating on the metal. An example of a toxic industrial coating is the PCB’s contained in electrical transformers. For those who argue that GI has been there for 100 years - long before we were, my response is they can stay another 100 years but they have to be respectful of their neighbors by taking steps to reduce the health risk to the community. There are many companies that design and install containment systems that would contain the byproduct of their operations (dust/ water/noise) on their property so it can be disposed of properly. It will require a substantial investment by GI into upgrading their facility, but that is not only what responsible companies do, it is the right thing to do. Alternatively, if GI doesn’t want to make the investment in their operations, GI can sell or ground lease their property. But they need to do something because doing nothing also makes it more difficult for Sterling Bay to attract the likes of Amazon to the area. It is tantamount to GI holding the entire area hostage. If SB cannot monetize the area, neither can the city and then everyone loses. Alderman Hopkins has been trying since the day to convince the city to be positive player in this matter but we have heard nothing from the city on this. Our families, our children have been exposed to unnecessary health risks for too long. We have been far too patient and too tolerant as a community. This issue should be front and center together with parks and infrastructure. It is time for the city to do the right thing as well. Thank you for the opportunity to share this message.