A Chicago steel manufacturer is getting millions of dollars in government incentives to foot its long-awaited move, despite that fact that it has continued to shirk safety requirements at its Lincoln Park facility.

A. Finkl and Sons, the 132-year-old Lincoln Park steel company, has been counting down the days until its planned move to a new facility in the Burnside area — a relocation that is being heavily subsidized by the city and state and has been hailed as a much-needed economic stimulator for the South Side neighborhood.

But Finkl has been letting the clock run out on fulfilling training and safety requirements at its North Side facility for nearly three years, according to records from the U.S. Environmental protection agency.

A remnant of the city’s once-prominent industrial sector, Finkl specializes in die block manufacturing and steel forge production, employing around 350 full-time workers at its 2011 N. Southport Ave. facility in West Lincoln Park. The company currently produces over 100,000 tons of steel annually.

Representatives from Finkl did not respond to calls for this story.

In 2006, the company was acquired by German steel producer Schmolz + Bickenbach AG, making it part of the world’s largest supplier of forging die steels. Shortly after that acquisition, Finkl announced that it was looking to move from its current Lincoln Park property, where it has operated since 1902.

Fearing that it might lose the company to a higher bid (Quebec was hinted at as a possible cost-saving destination), the city offered Finkl a 13-acre piece of land at 1355 E. 93rd St., next to the site of the former Verson Steel mill.

But in May 2007, an inspector from the EPA visited Finkl’s North Side site to evaluate the company’s compliance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, a federal statute that provides “a cradle-to-grave framework to ensure proper management of hazardous wastes, which, if handled in an unsafe manner, could present risks to humans and the environment.”

During a tour of the facility, the inspector observed a number of problems with the company’s waste storage practices.

Loose quantities of K061 dust — a hazardous byproduct of a form of steel production — were found on the floor in the facility’s loading areas; the substance was also being stored in unmarked yard bags in the facility at the time of the inspection.

The report from the visit concluded that — in addition to breaching waste storage codes — Finkl was in violation of a number of state and federal regulations regarding employee trainings and safety requirements.

This included gaps in the company’s safety program and a failure to produce records showing that Finkl had carried out trainings on emergency procedures at the facility for employees hired within six months.

The notice also stated that Finkl’s records were devoid of over two years of mandatory weekly hazardous waste inspection reports.

Skyline obtained documentation of the EPA inspection through a Freedom of Information Act request submitted to the agency’s regional and national offices.

Finkl was no stranger to bucking EPA regulations; in a 2006 settlement, the company paid out nearly $700,000 in charitable donations and penalty fees to the EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice for Clean Air Act violations conducted at the Lincoln Park plant.

In October 2009, the city’s Department of Community Development finalized the transfer of the six-parcel South Side site. The property, appraised at $934,500, was sold to Finkl for one dollar.

“A. Finkl and Sons has outgrown its Southport Avenue campus and needs to move to a state-of-the-art facility to expand and modernize its operations,” said then-acting Community Development Commissioner Chris Raguso regarding the sale.

Finkl has since announced plans to redevelop the 44-acre Verson site.

Earlier that summer, Mayor Richard M. Daley started pushing for a 12-year extension for certain tax increment financing districts in the city. Included in that set was the Stony Island/Burnside district — where the Verson site is located — which was set to expire that year. The extension was granted in July 2010.

The EPA stated in an October 2010 letter to Finkl that it intended to file a complaint against the company, claiming that many of the violations cited in the 2007 report were still outstanding at its Lincoln Park facility.

According to the second report, a May 2010 inspection of the site revealed that Finkl had yet to prove that its new employees were completing trainings, and that the company’s safety program had not been improved since the EPA’s last visit.

As noted in the 2007 inspection, the report also charged that Finkl’s records did not clearly indicate which employees were responsible for hazardous waste management at the facility.

K061 dust was again noted as being improperly stored at the facility.

In its notice, the agency deemed Finkl to be “a significant non-complier” under the RCRA act.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity in mid-April awarded Finkl with a $10.3 million business investment package that will include tax credits and job training funds.

“We’re helping to keep good-paying, sustainable jobs right here in Illinois, boosting our manufacturing industry and improving our economic competitiveness,” said Governor Pat Quinn in a press statement.

The incentives, which were divvied out to about 100 companies in Illinois, were first pledged in March 2010.

A day after the state’s announcement, the city approved $20.5 million in TIF funds to be allotted to Finkl to help complete the move, which is projected to cost $150 million.

EPA spokesperson Karen Thompson recently said that the agency is still in negotiations with Finkl regarding the pending complaint.

Thompson declined to comment on the specifics of the dialogue between EPA officials and Finkl, or what the potential penalties for Finkl could be, but she said that the company’s RCRA violations were nothing rare in the spectrum of compliance issues that the agency regularly addresses.

“We deal with those all the time,” she said.

Finkl has said it expects to employ more than 500 people at its South Side facility, where production began in March.

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By Boyee from Mid-North in Lincoln Park
Posted: 04/30/2011 11:35 PM

When are they moving out of their Lincoln Park space on Southport?