Clean Power Lake County, through its advocacy and organizing efforts, and Brushwood Center, with its focus on leveraging arts and science to advance health equity, are now working together to pursue environmental justice in Waukegan and northeast Lake County.
Celeste Flores, co-chair of Clean Power Lake County, said cities like Waukegan, which has five Superfund sites and still has remnants of a decommissioned coal-fired power plant, are environmental justice communities, as is Zion, where nuclear waste from a shuttered power plant is still buried underground.
“Everyone should have access to clean air, clean water and clean soil, no matter where they live or what resources they have,” Flores said.
Brushwood Center Executive Director Katherine Game said the goals of both organizations mesh well: They have partnered in the past, and the plan to have a joint office in Waukegan is a natural extension of the partnership.
“Environmental justice is disproportionately impacted here,” Game said. “Clean Power Lake County is organizing at the grassroots level in Waukegan and other places, and Brushwood is collaborating by bringing arts and cultural impact.”
Clean Power Lake County and Brushwood Center will open a joint office in downtown Waukegan on Sept. 21 to work together and individually to improve environmental justice throughout Lake County.
Game said the space will include two offices, a community room, space for office equipment and opportunities to work with local residents, artists and other partners to help create a “cleaner and healthier” northeast Lake County. The office will be staffed full-time.
Clean Power Lake County has been based out of a church in Waukegan since it was founded in 2013, but has been without a permanent home since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Flores said, adding that the move was a natural fit for the group, as they’ve partnered with Brushwood on projects in the past.
A focus of Clean Power Lake County’s new office will be developing youth programs. Flores said the organization will hire high school and college student summer interns to teach them about environmental justice issues and encourage their participation.
“We want to get the younger generation involved and educate them about environmental justice,” Flores said. “It’s important for them to educate their peers.”
Eduardo Flores (no relation to Celeste Flores) is a co-chair of Clean Power. He graduated from Waukegan High School in 2020 and is currently a student at Lake County College where he leads youth education programs.
Eduardo Flores, who helped restart the environmental club when he was in high school, said he appreciates the club’s efforts to encourage community members to plant trees, but he says there isn’t enough environmental science education for young people, which he would like to see offered by state mandate.
“We’re not being taught enough about the environment,” Eduardo Flores said. “People need to learn more about the environment so they can make decisions that are good for the environment and for all the people here.”
Clean Power Lake County was once spurred to organize a campaign against pollution from a coal-fired power plant on the lakeshore north of downtown Waukegan, Celeste Flores said. When the group learned that plants in Waukegan and Gurnee were emitting ethylene oxide (EtO), it also worked to reduce it.
Regarding the now-closed plants, Flores said the group is working with elected officials to clean up the coal ash remaining at the plants. Clean Power has also worked with federal, state and local officials for better ethylene oxide monitoring.
Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor, who attended the opening ceremony, said dealing with coal ash from the plant is an important issue to her, and she has lobbied the Illinois State Legislature in Springfield on the issue.
“We hope that young people will become good stewards of the environment, increase social awareness and bring environmental justice to their communities,” Taylor said.
State Rep. Rita Mayfield (D-Gurnee) has introduced a bill to require NRG Corp., the owner of the defunct plant, to remove the two remaining coal ash ponds in 2022 and again next year. Mayfield hopes to get the votes she needs before the current legislative session ends in January.
“We’re five votes short,” Mayfield said. “We’re planning an abbreviated veto conference in the fall, so hopefully we can get it done. If we have to reintroduce it at the next conference, we will.”
