Reinstate the Department of Environment
A decade ago, the City of Chicago, under the Emanuel administration, dissolved its Department of Environment, leaving a broad range of environmental issues to be dealt with across scattered and, at times, understaffed city departments.
Since the dissolution, we’ve seen a broad range of environmental justice and other environmental issues spring up only to be met with mismanagement. From the botched demolition of the Crawford Coal Plant on the Southwest side, to increasingly concentrated industry and warehousing in environmental justice communities, to a broken recycling system, the cracks left behind by the absence of a Department of Environment are evident and widespread.
From $188 million in the City budget to the Climate Action Plan and the We Will initiative, it's clear Mayor Lightfoot’s administration wants to invest in climate mitigation, but Chicago deserves a permanent Department of Environment (DOE) to carry out these investments.
LWV Chicago’s Environmental Action Committee (EAC) is spearheading our efforts to reinstate the DOE. Learn more about the EAC’s work.
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Chicago’s lofty environmental goals will not be accomplished without massive coordination efforts. So where is Chicago’s Department of Environment?