Developer had big plans for land polluted by the steel industry on Chicago’s Southeast Side. Instead, he flipped the property for millions, and now taxpayers likely will pay for the cleanup.
During the last years of Chicago’s once-mighty steel industry, a clout-heavy developer seized an opportunity to make millions while offering the city’s beleaguered Southeast Side a glimmer of hope.
For just
Mayor
Now-indicted Ald.
A Tribune investigation found Schroud cashed in six years later by flipping half of the property to another developer for
“Another example of people promising big things then failing to deliver,” said
Last year, the biggest parcel Schroud still owns became the city’s newest Superfund site, a federal designation reserved for the nation’s most contaminated properties. Taxpayers likely will be left with the tab for a long and costly cleanup.
He donated other tracts to a youth baseball organization in the Hegewisch neighborhood. The
In a brief telephone conversation last month, Schroud said he did not make any money from the site, contradicting property records that indicate he did.
He said he left property development two decades ago and said it was up to the city and the EPA, not him, to clean up his land. State records show he remained actively involved with the property until at least 2013, when the Illinois EPA kicked him out of its voluntary cleanup program.
Schroud told the Tribune he lives modestly in an apartment in suburban
He declined to characterize his relationship with Burke, the once-influential alderman accused by federal prosecutors of strong-arming people into becoming clients of his tax appeals firm in exchange for help at
In 2000, a federal grand jury subpoenaed documents relating to an unusually lucrative lease Schroud got from Secretary of State
Later that year city and state officials accused Schroud of turning a chunk of his land on the Southeast Side into an illegal dump. He defied
“I don’t have any money,” Schroud, 77, said when asked about the unpaid verdict against him. “If I had a million bucks I would be living in
For most of the last century, Schroud’s land was owned by Republic Steel, one of the companies that built sprawling mills near the shore of
Republic is infamous for the
South of the massacre site, Republic transformed more than 200 acres of wetlands into a moonscape. The company and its corporate successor, now-defunct LTV Steel, used the property as a dump for slag and other toxic waste, contaminating the land as well as a creek connecting
Until the city extended
“If you’re not familiar with the environmental problems, it looks inviting,” said
Now an adult with a child of her own, Ramirez works for the nonprofit
She also is part of a younger generation revitalizing community groups that have spent decades clamoring for improvements on the Southeast Side, where Schroud’s polluted property is among several new or lingering health threats.
‘A constant fight’
In August, the
EPA inspectors discovered the pollution during an investigation of KCBX Terminals, a nearby company that collected huge open piles of petroleum coke. Gritty black clouds repeatedly blew off the piles into the
Under pressure from local, state and federal leaders, KCBX stopped storing the byproduct of oil refining, shipping out of town what it had on hand before leaving its property vacant. But
The latest is
RMG already is building a new scrap shredder on another part of the former Republic Steel property, close to
Company officials contend neighbors won’t notice the operation, set back from
“It’s a constant fight,” said
Lingering problem
Federal and state officials knew the Republic Steel property was contaminated years before Schroud bought most of it, records show. They delayed ordering a cleanup in part because at the time other parts of the region were considered more dangerous, including a cluster surrounding
Schroud later avoided federal scrutiny by applying in 2008 to join the state’s voluntary cleanup program. He and his consultants exchanged letters with the Illinois EPA for five years, according to an online docket that shows the state agency repeatedly told the developer he had failed to follow the program’s rules.
When asked how Schroud planned to clean up his property, the civil engineers he hired kept forwarding detailed plans prepared the company that years earlier had purchased other portions of the land, records in the docket show.
By 2013, the Illinois EPA had run out of patience after Schroud declined to submit the required plans for his own land. An agency official told Schroud to get lost, albeit in bland, bureaucratic language.
“Please be advised that the
The site continued to fester until attorney
Harley’s quiet-but-firm advocacy on behalf of neighborhood groups persuaded the right people to request and order a cleanup under the Superfund law. Invoking the federal government’s authority enables the EPA to seek restitution from what’s left of companies responsible for the pollution and, if that isn’t possible, tap into the federal
A potential future can be found north of
“We’re starting to turn a corner,” said Ald.
The portion Schroud still owns is ringed by scrubby trees and concrete barriers featuring signs posted by the EPA warning visitors the property is toxic.
ATVs can be spotted riding the
“This case was problematic from the start, when a single individual -- rather than a company -- was authorized to purchase a large, complicated piece of land,” said
Asked about the ongoing problems, Schroud said he always had good intentions for the property.
“I didn’t pollute it, Republic and LTV did,” he said during the November interview with the Tribune. “But they declared bankruptcy. So guess what: I’m gone and so are they.”
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