Metro East Residents and Advocates Demand Transparency from Shadowy Coal Plant Demolition

Alton, IL -- Tuesday night, concerned advocates hosted a Facebook Live event to call out Commercial Liability Partners (CLP) for their lack of transparency and unwillingness to engage in meaningful public dialogue about plans to demolish and redevelop the site of the Wood River coal plant in East Alton, IL.

Watch video recording here.

Speakers were joined by State Senator Rachelle Crowe. The advocates presented her with their concerns and asked her to work on their behalf in an effort to bring CLP to the table, to which she agreed.

“This demolition has already started. When are these people going to come to the table so we can make sure they have a plan in place? The very air that we breathe is on the line here. The water that we drink. Our houses, our homes where we grow our gardens, the places that our children play day in and day out, are at risk if they don’t do this in the right way,” said Mike Atty, Executive Director of United Congregations of Metro East.

After repeated attempts, Metro East Green Alliance (MEGA) failed to independently procure a meeting or even an open discussion with CLP regarding their plans for demolition, reclamation and resale of the site. 

“We filled out multiple contact forms, tried calling phone numbers on their website, left messages, and no one returned our calls. Eventually, Mayor Silkwood of East Alton directed us to the public relations firm representing Commercial Liability Partners. The PR folks gave us a curt reply that basically said they were doing everything by the book and we shouldn’t worry. As a last ditch effort to get a genuine response, we put a letter in the local paper. Still, silence,” said Toni Oplt of MEGA.

The letter of concern published in Advantage News can be read here.

Concern for the site’s impact on the surrounding community has only grown since a poorly executed implosion at a similar site in Chicago left a neighborhood blanketed in a cloud of toxic dust. Activists there have been similarly outraged by lack of transparency and accountability. Residents in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood were given short-notice insufficient warning before the smokestack at the retired Crawford coal plant was collapsed, exposing them to harmful dust pollution in the middle of a historic respiratory health crisis, COVID-19. 

“We saw the community of Little Village devastated by the demolition of the Crawford plant. We don't want a replay at the Wood River Plant. Our community and the workers conducting the demolition deserve better,” said Sierra Club’s Virginia Woulfe-Beile who lives near the retired plant.