“All of the environmental issues facing Chicago are magnified on the Southeast Side where industrialization and contamination have created an inhospitable and dangerous environment for many,” said Daniel Suarez, conservation manager for Audubon Great Lakes, a regional arm of the national nonprofit conservation group.Last year, in a letter to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the “conditions facing Chicago’s Southeast Side epitomize the problem of environmental injustice…”Regan noted that the neighborhood ranked at the “highest levels for many pollution indicators… including fine particulate matter, air toxics, cancer risk, respiratory hazard, traffic proximity, lead paint, Superfund site proximity, hazardous waste proximity, and wastewater discharges.”The letter states that since 2014, more than 75 facilities in Chicago’s southeast area have been investigated by local, state and federal agencies for environmental law violations.Slow progressGina Ramirez, a third-generation Southeast Side resident, recalls her mother’s childhood stories about growing up two blocks from a US Steel mill, which once employed nearly 20,000 workers at its now-vacant site by the mouth of the Calumet River.Ramirez and Sanchez are both members of the Southeast Environmental Task Force (SETF), a community-based group that works to create awareness around environmental injustices.Local officials working with nonprofit organizations are turning some former dumping grounds for manufacturing waste into restored marsh and grasslands to serve as parks and habitats for wildlife."