Toxic sludge oozed out of rusty barrels, soaked through cardboard boxes and spilled over frothy vats inside a west suburban warehouse raided by state inspectors in January 2008.Even though the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency had plenty of evidence to file charges against the owner and operator of Anchor Metal Finishing, top agency officials sat on the case for more than a year. Meanwhile, carcinogenic solvents and caustic acids kept leaching from barrels packed haphazardly into a ramshackle building, two blocks away from a Schiller Park subdivision.
What appeared to be an obvious violation of state environmental laws became entangled in one of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's political feuds, delaying action for months. Dozens of other cases against polluters languished as well, largely because Blagojevich and his top aides refused to refer them to his archnemesis, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, a Tribune investigation found.
The bitter dispute still reverberates through state government today, eight months after Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges and impeached from office. Nearly 19 months after it was discovered, the Schiller Park site still hasn't been cleaned up, and several other older cases are moving through an enforcement system that Gov. Pat Quinn and Madigan only recently have begun to repair.
Blagojevich and Madigan started out on amicable terms after they were elected in 2002. But EPA referrals of civil and criminal violations to the attorney general began to drop sharply in 2005, and fell to a record low of 114 in 2007, according to state records.
The agency hasn't sent a criminal case to the attorney general in two years, records show.
By contrast, previous administrations on average referred about 300 environmental cases during most years since the mid-1980s. The EPA forwarded nearly 30 criminal violations to the attorney general in 2003, before the relationship soured between two of the state's top Democrats.
Polluters didn't suddenly wise up and start following the law. Instead, top EPA officials now acknowledge, the agency avoided sending cases to Madigan, whose office handles most of the legal work for state government.
"There were some issues between us and the attorney general, and that skewed those numbers," said EPA Director Doug Scott, who was appointed by Blagojevich in 2005 and kept on by Quinn.
As the conflict roiled, federal officials stepped in on some of the biggest environmental cases in the Chicago area.
For instance, the U.S. EPA is conducting a high-profile criminal investigation into Crestwood's secret use of a community well contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals, a case the Illinois EPA tried to quietly handle informally while Blagojevich was still governor.
Federal regulators also filed suit against Midwest Generation, the owner of six coal-fired power plants that records show are some of the biggest contributors to dirty air in the Chicago area. Madigan's staff documented thousands of pollution violations at the plants, but the state EPA repeatedly refused to take action against the company, which was represented for years by one of Blagojevich's top campaign aides.
Scott, a former state lawmaker and Rockford mayor, defended his agency's record. He argued that many environmental violations have been addressed without formal enforcement action involving the attorney general's office.
In many cases, Scott said, the agency is required by law to conduct informal negotiations with polluters. Business lobbyists persuaded lawmakers in 2002 to require a less-confrontational approach that doesn't involve the attorney general's office unless there is an imminent threat to the environment; lawsuits still can be filled if an agreement can't be brokered.
While the state EPA declined to cite Midwest Generation -- the agency agreed with the company that frequent bursts of soot from its coal plants weren't harmful -- Scott noted the Blagojevich administration negotiated a deal that will force the aging generators to clean up or shut down by the end of the next decade. Environmental groups have gone to court seeking to impose tighter deadlines.
Midwest Generation officials have said their agreement shows the company is committed to environmental improvements.
"It's not like we haven't done anything," Scott said. "It's not like these guys are completely thumbing their noses at us."
The Blagojevich years were marked by ongoing squabbles between the governor, statewide officials and lawmakers. Fueled by rivalries for attention and power, the disputes were always political and often personal.
From interviews with current and former officials who worked for Blagojevich and Madigan, it becomes clear that the lag in environmental enforcement dates to January 2005, when the attorney general launched an investigation into allegations that the former governor traded government jobs for campaign funds.
The probe was prompted by accusations leveled by Blagojevich's father-in-law, Ald. Richard Mell (33rd), who was incensed that the then-governor had personally intervened and ordered the EPA to shut down a landfill run by a relative of Mell's wife.