Environmental Hazard Reduction

The Chicago Recovery Plan is investing in the Chicago Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) environmental justice initiatives, particularly in the city’s Southeast and near Southwest sides where residents are most vulnerable to pollution. CDPH is building more capacity to address and monitor pollution and to develop new policies and procedures that protect the long-term health and safety of Chicago residents by:

• Investing in core staffing for permitting and enforcement through the Environmental Hazard Reduction CRP program
• Improving communications and public engagement practices for environmental initiatives
• Enhancing data collection and analysis systems to allow CDPH to understand the distribution of pollutants and relative vulnerability of different Chicago neighborhoods
• Awarding EJ Seeds Grants to community partners that will co-manage a citywide air monitoring network in a way that reflects community goals and the lived experience of people most affected by poor air quality
• Working in collaboration with other agencies to remediate contaminated sites and mitigate environmental risks

Measures of Success:

• Developed and launched chicago.gov/envcommunityinfo, a website to provide the public with information about permit actions, new policies, and other environmental news.
• CDPH and community partners are conducting Chicago’s first Cumulative Impact Assessment, a citywide project that will provide data on how environmental burdens and other stressors vary across Chicago. Findings from the assessment can inform decision-making in policy areas such as land use and zoning, transportation, permitting, enforcement, health interventions, and more. To follow our progress, visit chicago.gov/cumulativeimpacts.
• Hired 3.5 FTE staff to support environmental permitting and inspections, with a particular focus on EJ neighborhoods.
• With community partners, CDPH is working to co-develop a robust, shared air monitoring network. This project will expand and sustain the collection of real-time, hyperlocal data on air quality in Chicago, with a focus on EJ neighborhoods.