Citizen Complaints of Air Pollution In Northeastern Illinois

Abstract

In 1964, as part of the Northeastern Illinois Metropolitan Planning Commission's Air Resource Management Study, an examination was made of citizen complaints of air pollution registered with air pollution control agencies representing the City of Chicago, outlying Cook County, and the State of Illinois. The complaint files of the City of Chicago were found to contain the addresses of some 9500 air pollution sources specified by complainants in complaints covering the time period from approximately 1954 to 1964. A statistical sample of these sources showed more than 70% to be of a nonindustrial nature, with domestic fuel burning or incineration by neighbors most often specified. There were 1119 industrial process source snamed in the Chicago files; 588 nonmanufacturing and 531 manufacturing. Fabricated metal industries, primary metal industries, chemical manufacturers, and food processing plants were cited more often than other industrial categories. Complaint sources named in complaints filed by citizens with the State of Illinois, and with Cook County, differed with those of Chicago in that industrial sources were specified more often than nonindustrial ones. The reason for this is believed to lie in the reduced residential densities and the relatively great use of pollution-free fuels in the metropolitan area outside of the City of Chicago.