South and West Siders plead for law to end pollution ‘sacrifice zones’

Cheryl Johnson, executive director of People for Community Recovery, speaks during a City Hall news conference on environmental justice earlier this year. On Tuesday, she told City Council members that South and West Side residents can’t take more pollution. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times (file))

South and West Siders who live with heavy pollution call their neighborhoods sacrifice zones. 

On Tuesday, a number of them told city lawmakers that they need a law with teeth that will protect them from dirty industry, including measures to slow the proliferation of warehouses that draw thousands of polluting diesel trucks.