Dive summary:

• In a settlement with the EPA, Ford Heights tire incinerator in Chicago has agreed to close down.
• The decision comes after nearly two decades of pollution violations and changes in ownership due to financial problems.
• EPA regional administrator, Susan Hedman, said the closure of Ford Heights will eliminate almost 200 tons of air pollutants each year in an area that has been disproportionately impacted by pollutants.

From the article:

Still unresolved is a federal civil rights investigation into why former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration awarded a permit in 2005 to restart the controversial tire burner in Ford Heights, a south suburb where 95 percent of the population is black and per capita income is among the lowest in the state.

Despite chronic pollution violations by the plant's former owners and widespread concerns about incineration's health effects, the Blagojevich administration gave a new group of investors a chance to make the tire burner work. They pitched incineration as a way to generate electricity and keep tires out of landfills. ...