Corporate Pollution Case Study: Nacme Steel Processing and Its Impact on Chicago’s Air

A Community’s Air, A Corporation’s Gamble

On the South Side of Chicago, residents breathe air conditioned by the decisions of corporations like Nacme Steel Processing, LLC.

For over three years, this company systematically violated the operational limits of its air pollution permit, an agreement designed to protect the health and well-being of the surrounding community. From September 2018 to December 2021, on more than 6,000 separate occasions, Nacme cranked up the heat on its acid-filled steel treatment tanks, exceeding the maximum temperature of 190°F. Each instance was a roll of the dice with the air its neighbors breathe.

The permit was a public promise. It set limits on dangerous chemicals like hydrogen chloride, a substance that can cause severe irritation to the respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. By repeatedly breaking the temperature limit—a key condition for controlling these emissions—Nacme demonstrated a fundamental choice: operational shortcuts over public health. This is the story of what happens when a corporation’s pursuit of efficiency is prioritized over its responsibility to the community it operates within.

The Corporate Playbook: How the Harm Was Done

Nacme’s business is steel pickling, a process that involves bathing steel coils in massive tanks of hydrochloric acid to remove impurities. This process is controlled by a scrubber, a device meant to capture harmful emissions before they escape into the atmosphere. The effectiveness of this entire safety system hinges on maintaining specific operating conditions, including the temperature of the acid baths.

The company’s own records, handed over to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after an inspection, told the story of its systemic non-compliance. The violation wasn’t a one-time accident or a minor slip-up. It was a pattern of behavior repeated 6,085 times. By running the pickling tanks hotter than permitted, a company can often speed up production. The data reveals a clear operational strategy that pushed environmental controls to the background.

Despite being issued a Notice of Violation by the EPA in January 2023, Nacme only conducted a new performance test months later, in July 2023. This test was performed under new, self-selected operating parameters that the company hoped to have approved in a revised permit —a tacit admission that their previous method of operation was unsustainable under the rules designed to protect the public.

A Cascade of Consequences: The Real-World Impact

Public Health & Safety

Every one of the 6,085 violations represented a potential increase in harmful air pollutants released into a dense urban environment. The 190°F temperature limit was a cornerstone of the facility’s Federally Enforceable State Operating Permit (FESOP), put in place specifically to keep emissions of hydrogen chloride (HCl) “negligible”. Overheating the acid baths directly threatens this control. For the families living near the facility at 429 W. 127th Street, this was a direct compromise of the air their children play in and they breathe every day.

A System Designed for This: Profit, Deregulation, and Power

This case is a textbook example of how neoliberal capitalism treats public health as an externality—a cost to be borne by society, not the corporation. The fine levied against Nacme Steel Processing was a mere $49,900.

When this penalty is spread across the 6,085 documented violations, the cost to the company comes out to approximately $8.20 per violation.

This figure is basically just an operating business expense. For a company processing up to 1,050,000 tons of steel a year, such a penalty is laughably insignificant.

Our late-stage capitalistic system is not broken; it is functioning as intended. It allows corporations to pollute communities, treat the resulting fines as a minor operational cost, and continue business as usual without ever having to admit fault. This is the predictable outcome of a system that prioritizes corporate profit over collective well-being.

Dodging Accountability: How the Powerful Evade Justice

The settlement reached between Nacme and the EPA is a masterclass in avoiding true responsibility. As part of this agreement, Nacme

neither admits nor denies the allegations that it repeatedly violated federal law. This legal maneuver allows the company to pay the fine and move on without any public admission of wrongdoing, effectively erasing the narrative of its systemic non-compliance from the official record.

There is no mention of holding individual executives accountable. The Consent Agreement and Final Order (CAFO) is with Nacme Steel Processing, LLC, the corporate entity. The decision-makers who oversaw a multi-year pattern of environmental violations face no personal consequences. The structure of corporate law and regulatory enforcement shields them from liability, ensuring that the penalties are socialized among shareholders while the profits from non-compliance are privatized.

Reclaiming Power: Pathways to Real Change

This case demonstrates the urgent need for systemic reform. Fines must be scaled to represent a genuine financial deterrent, not a rounding error on a balance sheet. They should be calculated based on the profits gained from the non-compliance and the real cost of the human and environmental harm caused.

Furthermore, corporate charters should be tied to compliance with public-welfare laws, with repeat offenders facing the risk of revocation.

Communities need more direct power, including the ability to initiate and enforce stricter local environmental standards and the right to reject permits for polluting industries in their neighborhoods. Finally, the legal shield protecting individual executives must be dismantled. Until the individuals making decisions face personal consequences for harming communities, the “cost of doing business” will always include the public’s health.

Conclusion: A Story of a System, Not an Exception

The story of Nacme Steel Processing is a clear window into an economic and political system designed to produce these outcomes. The legal document detailing 6,085 violations, a trivial fine, and no admission of guilt is a testament to a framework where corporate power overshadows public health and environmental justice. This is the blueprint of modern neoliberal capitalism in action, and it is happening in communities everywhere.

All factual claims in this article were derived from the public Consent Agreement and Final Order, Docket No. CAA-05-2025-0039, filed in Region 5 of the United States Environmental Protection Agency on August 7, 2025.

The source used to write this article can be found on the EPA’s website: https://yosemite.epa.gov/oa/rhc/epaadmin.nsf/Filings/4289A76156DF580F85258CE000703067/$File/CAA-05-2025-0039_CAFO_NacmeSteelProcessingLLC_ChicagoIllinois_14PGS.pdf