"Illinois Expands Crackdown on Petroleum Coke"

"Already targeted as a source of lung-damaging air pollution, a company that has been piling petroleum coke on Chicago's Southeast Side now faces new accusations that it illegally allowed contaminated runoff to spill into the Calumet River."

"In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan urged a Cook County judge to cite KCBX Terminals for violating water quality and open dumping laws by failing to prevent petroleum coke and coal from washing into the river at the company's site on 100th Street in the South Deering neighborhood.

During a November inspection, investigators from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency reported that the only thing separating the black mounds from the river were sandbags piled on a narrow concrete walkway. Several sandbags were missing or out of place, according to the suit."

Michael Hawthorne reports for the Chicago Tribune March 4, 2014.