Public Pressure Forces Tar Sands Waste Operator Out Of Chicago

An operator in charge of storing petroleum coke, a dirty byproduct of tar sands refining, has announced it’s leaving the city of Chicago, and taking the black, dusty piles with it.

Beemsterboer Slag Corp., which has been storing petcoke at a storage facility by the Calumet River, has closed the facility after facing increasing pressure from city officials and residents.

“The property has been sold,” company president Alan Beemsterboer said of the Calumet Transload Facility. “Doing business in the city is increasingly difficult.”

At the end of April [2014], the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance that banned new petcoke storage facilities from opening and prevented existing storage facilities from expanding. In addition, earlier this month, Beemsterboer was fined $50,000 for violating an order to remove petcoke from a different site.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/26/3572464/petcoke-operator-leaves-chicago/