Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Chicago Sun-Times
by John Sheerin
Letter to the Editor

It is a little too easy to paint the International Steel Group land grab as a conflict between desperate, unemployed workers and uncaring purist environmentalists [''Bid for county land splits officials,'' news story, April 25]. The fact is, a wealthy foreign steel company finds it more convenient to take forest preserve land than to clean up the mess on its own property. The ISG [Riverdale] plant could be expanded onto its own property by moving parking lots and redeveloping its abandoned industrial land. ISG already grabbed the mill out of bankruptcy for the bargain basement price of just $65 million. Now big steel wants a handout.

Let's not support a theoretical ''what could be a good deal if done right'' when what ISG offers now is simply a bad deal. ISG offers 31 acres of former industrial property that it says is not contaminated. It is across a river, unconnected to any Forest Preserve holdings. It is not in the Forest Preserve's land acquisition plan, and it is in poor ecological condition. If this land was on the open market, the Forest Preserve wouldn't buy it. So the offer is junk, even if it is bigger junk.

In exchange, ISG demands 21 acres of Whistler Woods, which is directly connected to the Forest Preserve and holds wetlands and old trees. The land buffers the picnic groves and driving range in Whistler Woods. It is near the Little Calumet River, offering size and habitat to the rare birds that make the Lake Calumet region their home. So what ISG wants is valuable.

Fortunately, destroying our woods is not an alternative of last resort in this case. ISG should look to its own lands before trying to take the public's land. Specifically, they could relocate a parking lot or build immediately to the northeast of the operating mill.

Further, the Forest Preserve should not be making bad deals with known polluters. This plant already puts out hundreds of pounds of lead compounds, and during the '90s at full production it put 80,000 pounds of toxins into the atmosphere annually. It put toxins into surface waters, and toxins were shipped offsite for land-based disposal. We are not dealing here with a clean industry of the future.

Styling this deal as jobs vs. environment highlights the conflict of interest in having the Cook County Board sit as the Forest Preserve Board. As the County Board, commissioners favor economic development; as the Forest Preserve Board they should look to the interests of the Forest Preserve. DuPage County separated its boards because of this conflict of interest. Perhaps, as the County Board, commissioners could structure some alternative economic incentives rather than destroy the public woods.

ISG needs to look to its own lands -- industrial lands now sitting idle -- before putting a squeeze on the Forest Preserve. Don't kid yourself: The ISG land grab is a bad deal for our Forest Preserves. Bad deals like this are exactly why the Forest Preserve has a land protection policy.

John Sheerin, president,
Friends of the Forest Preserves