Nice, racking up the negative karma points for faux-recycling.
Suburb goes after contractor's storage of mercury-filled bulbs
A company that won City of Chicago contracts and was told it would receive state grants to recycle fluorescent light bulbs instead left thousands of the mercury-laden lamps inside a Riverdale warehouse, and officials there contend that the building has now become a hazardous-waste site.
Last week, the village began notifying federal and state environmental officials that it will seek to file a federal lawsuit over the alleged illegal storage of the light bulbs, which sit in the warehouse by the thousands and were never recycled.
Inspectors discovered significant levels of poisonous mercury from the light bulbs and other hazardous waste during two inspections of the building in recent weeks, said Michael Blazer, a village attorney who filed the notices.
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The story behind the fracas involves two convicted felons, a politically connected developer who is under indictment, a lucrative city contract and the assertion by a top-ranking county environmental official that the company was "in compliance with both Illinois and Cook County recycling regulations."
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According to the Riverdale filing, the warehouse has been used since 2005 as "an unlicensed universal waste storage facility owned and operated by Laurence C. Kelly ... doing business as River Shannon Recycling."
[From Recycler is accused of polluting]
Surprisingly, the owner of River Shannon Recycling is responding by countersuing, alleging violation of civil rights for some reason. Yikes. He should have just relocated to Indiana - the Indiana EPA is nothing if not lenient towards polluters, just ask BP Amoco.
