What Kensing Released Into the Air Above Kankakee

1,2-dichloroethane is a chemical with one primary industrial use: as a precursor in the manufacture of vinyl chloride, a known human carcinogen. It is itself classified as a probable carcinogen by multiple health agencies. Breathing it causes headaches, dizziness, and nausea at lower concentrations. Long-term or high-level exposure is linked to liver damage, kidney damage, and cancer. It does not stay in one place. Once airborne, it drifts.

• The chemical 1,2-dichloroethane (CAS #107-06-2) is designated a hazardous substance under Section 101(14) of CERCLA and a hazardous chemical under EPCRA’s definitions. It is a health hazard at any detected level of exposure.
• The EPA-assigned “reportable quantity” for this chemical is 100 pounds. That threshold exists because even 100 pounds released into air or water requires emergency responders to be alerted so they can protect people and assess the danger.
• The Kensing facility at 2525 S. Kensington Road produced, used, or stored 1,2-dichloroethane on-site. The community living and working around that facility had a right to know that.
• The leak began on or about September 21, 2022, at approximately 4:43 p.m. It continued uninterrupted for 19 days, ending on or about October 10, 2022. Total release: 18,640 pounds of toxic vapor emitted directly into the air.
• At 1,002 pounds per day, Kensing was releasing the reportable quantity for this substance every 2.4 hours, around the clock, for 19 days straight. No alarm was raised. No agency was called. Kankakee County went about its business.

What No Settlement Check Will Fix

Picture a Tuesday evening in Kankakee, Illinois. September 21, 2022. 4:43 in the afternoon. A pipe, a valve, a seal — something at the Kensing plant failed. And 1,2-dichloroethane began bleeding into the air. Not a puff, not a burst. A slow, steady hemorrhage. One thousand pounds a day. Every day.

People in Kankakee were outside that evening. Kids were at soccer practice. Someone was grilling. An elderly man walked his dog down a street a few blocks from the plant. None of them knew. None of them could know. Because the only people who had any mechanism to know — the ones at Kensing — said nothing.

The law that exists to protect people in situations exactly like this one is not complicated. It says: if a hazardous chemical is released above a certain amount, you call the National Response Center immediately. You call the state emergency commission immediately. You call your county’s Local Emergency Planning Committee immediately. These calls exist so that first responders can make informed decisions, so hospitals can be ready, so health officials can tell people to stay inside or stay away. The entire system depends on those calls happening.

Kensing let 19 days pass. The plant kept running. The chemical kept leaking. And the people of Kankakee County kept breathing the air — the same air — without a single official knowing a toxic release was in progress. The Local Emergency Planning Committee, whose sole function is to coordinate protective action during exactly this kind of event, was never called at all. Not on day one. Not on day nineteen. Not after the EPA filed its case. As of the signing of this settlement in May 2024, nearly two years after the leak began, the LEPC still had not been notified.

There is no dollar figure in this settlement for the people who lived and worked near that facility during those 19 days. There is no acknowledgment of harm to any individual. No health screening program. No community notification obligation. No requirement to tell the people of Kankakee County that this happened at all. The fine paid goes to the federal government. The community gets nothing. They do not even get the basic dignity of being told what was in the air above their homes.

That is the real cost. Not $75,000. Not even the theoretical maximum penalty. The real cost is a community that, to this day, may not know that for 19 days in the fall of 2022, they were breathing a chemical that the federal government requires immediate emergency notification to release. The real cost is the emergency planning system that exists to protect working-class communities — the kind of community that lives next to industrial plants because that is what they can afford — being bypassed completely, with consequences that amount to a fine smaller than the salary of one mid-level corporate manager.

Straight From the Federal Document: What They Admitted

Kensing neither admitted nor denied the factual allegations in this settlement — a standard legal maneuver. But the EPA’s documented findings speak plainly. Here is what the official federal record states, verbatim.

“Beginning on or about September 21, 2022, at or about 4:43 p.m., through on or about October 10, 2022, a release of 1,2-dichloroethane [occurred]. The release consisted of approximately 18,640 pounds of 1,2-dichloroethane. The quantity over this time period yields a leak rate of 1002 pounds per day.”

• This is the EPA’s official measurement of the scale of the release. 18,640 pounds is not an estimate offered by Kensing; it is the figure accepted in the final federal consent order, meaning it became enforceable legal fact upon signing.
• At 1,002 pounds per day, the leak was releasing the 100-pound reportable quantity every 2.4 hours. This was not a brief spike above a threshold; it was sustained, massive, and continuous.

“Respondent had knowledge of the release on October 10, 2022, at or around 12:00 pm, CST. Respondent had knowledge that the release was above the reportable quantity on October 10, 2022, at approximately 12:35 pm, CST.”

• This establishes that Kensing was aware a release was occurring by noon on October 10, and confirmed it exceeded the legal reporting threshold by 12:35 p.m. Federal law requires notification “immediately” at that point. The word “immediately” has no grace period built into it.
• Kensing did not call the National Response Center until 1:12 p.m. — 37 minutes after knowing the threshold had been crossed. They did not call the Illinois State Emergency Response Commission until 1:24 p.m. — 49 minutes later. Neither delay constitutes “immediate” notification under the law.

“To date, Respondent has failed to meet the immediate notification requirement to notify the LEPC. Respondent did not immediately notify the LEPC after Respondent had knowledge that the release was above the reportable quantity.”

• “To date” in this document refers to the filing date of May 21, 2024 — 19 months after the leak ended. This sentence means Kensing still had not told the Kankakee County Local Emergency Planning Committee anything about this release as of the date this settlement was finalized and made public.
• The LEPC is the first line of local emergency response. Its members are the people who coordinate evacuation, shelter-in-place orders, and hazmat response for Kankakee County residents. They were never brought into this. The community’s own emergency planning body was cut out of the loop permanently.

“Section 103(a) of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. § 9603(a), and Section 304 of EPCRA, 42 U.S.C. § 11004, provide a mechanism to alert federal, state and local agencies that a response action may be necessary to prevent deaths or injuries to emergency responders, facility personnel response to an emergency and pose serious threats to human health and the environment.”

• The EPA is saying outright that these notification laws exist to prevent deaths and serious harm. By failing to notify, Kensing deprived emergency systems of the ability to intervene in a situation the law recognizes as a potential threat to human life.
• No emergency protective action was taken during those 19 days because no authority knew protective action might be necessary. The mechanism designed to save lives was never activated.

Who Gets Hurt When Companies Skip Emergency Notifications

Environmental Degradation

18,640 pounds of 1,2-dichloroethane was released directly into the atmosphere in an urban Illinois county. The documented environmental facts are these:

• 1,2-dichloroethane is a volatile organic compound that, once airborne, contributes to ground-level ozone formation and smog. Kankakee County, in central Illinois, already sits within a regional airshed impacted by industrial emissions from surrounding counties and the greater Chicago corridor.
• The chemical is persistent in air and can travel significant distances from the point of release before dispersing. There is no documentation in the settlement of an environmental monitoring response during the 19-day leak, because no emergency response was triggered. No agency had any reason to deploy air quality monitors. No baseline measurements were taken of surrounding air quality during the event.
• The settlement itself acknowledges the release was “emitted into the air” and was “likely to affect Illinois” and “likely to affect Kankakee County.” No environmental remediation or monitoring requirement was included in the final order. The air contamination, once dispersed, is unrecoverable.

Public Health

The public health consequences of a failure to notify are structural, not merely theoretical. When emergency systems do not activate, no one is protected.

• 1,2-dichloroethane is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and EPA as a probable human carcinogen. Short-term inhalation exposure causes central nervous system depression, headaches, and nausea. Long-term or high-level exposure is associated with liver and kidney damage. Workers and residents near the Kensing facility were exposed to this substance for 19 days without any warning.
• Because no LEPC notification ever occurred, Kankakee County’s emergency coordinators could not advise residents to shelter in place, limit outdoor activity, or seek medical evaluation during the leak. The shelter-in-place advisory that could have reduced inhalation exposure for thousands of people was never issued because the people who issue it were never told.
• There is no health monitoring or medical screening program established in this settlement. No mechanism exists under this agreement to identify individuals who may have been harmed by the exposure. People who developed symptoms during those 19 days, from headaches to more serious conditions, have no legal pathway established here to connect their health outcomes to the Kensing release.
• The CERCLA and EPCRA notification laws explicitly exist, as stated in the federal document itself, to prevent “deaths or injuries to emergency responders, facility personnel” and to respond to “serious threats to human health.” The failure to activate those systems removed the only protective layer between the release and the community.

Economic Inequality

The geography of industrial pollution in America is not random. Kankakee, Illinois is a working-class city. The communities surrounding industrial facilities like the Kensing plant do not choose to live next to chemical operations because they prefer it; they live there because the land is cheaper and the options are fewer.

• The $75,000 penalty paid by Kensing is non-deductible for federal tax purposes per the settlement, but it is a one-time cost with no ongoing financial obligation to the affected community. No portion of the penalty goes to Kankakee County residents or to any fund for their benefit. The money goes to the federal government.
• Wealthier communities with more political capital, better-funded local governments, and more corporate accountability infrastructure are far more likely to receive prompt notification of industrial hazards and to demand and receive more substantial remedies. Kankakee County is not that community. The LEPC was never called. No local elected official was given information in time to act. The community had no leverage because it was never given information.
• The maximum penalty legally available was $69,733 per day of violation. With 19 days of violations across multiple statutes, the theoretical exposure was in the millions. The negotiated settlement came to $75,000, a figure that reflects Kensing’s ability to pay among other factors cited by the EPA, meaning the penalty was calibrated to what the company could absorb, not to the scale of harm to the community.
• Small businesses and individual workers face ruinous consequences for environmental violations. Corporate entities like Kensing resolve federal environmental violations with a consent agreement, a fine that is a fraction of maximum exposure, and a certification that they are now complying with the law. The asymmetry is built into the system.

What the Fine Actually Means in Dollars

Who Is Responsible and What Can Be Done

The individuals and entities documented in this federal consent order are listed below. Every contact detail here comes directly from the source document or its parties.

• Wesley D. Hassen, SVP of Site Operations, Kensing, LLC — signed the consent agreement on behalf of Kensing, binding the company to its terms.
• Kensing, LLC, 2525 S. Kensington Road, Kankakee, IL 60901 — the operator of the facility and the respondent in this federal action.
• Jason El-Zein, Manager, Emergency Response Branch 1, Superfund and Emergency Management Division, EPA Region 5 — signed as EPA complainant.
• Douglas Ballotti, Director, Superfund and Emergency Management Division, EPA Region 5 — signed as senior EPA authority on the order.
• Ann L. Coyle, Regional Judicial Officer, EPA Region 5 — issued the Final Order on May 21, 2024.

Watchlist: Regulatory Bodies With Ongoing Jurisdiction

• U.S. EPA Region 5: The region covering Illinois. Has jurisdiction over all CERCLA and EPCRA violations at this facility. The consent agreement explicitly preserves EPA’s right to pursue “injunctive or other equitable relief or criminal sanctions” separate from this civil penalty settlement.
• Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA): The state-level SERC for Illinois. Was notified 49 minutes after Kensing confirmed the reportable threshold breach. Has the authority to pursue parallel state-level enforcement actions.
• Kankakee County LEPC: The county-level emergency planning body. Was never notified. Has a legal interest in ensuring facilities in Kankakee County comply with EPCRA notification requirements going forward.
• EPA Office of Inspector General: Can investigate whether the negotiated penalty accurately reflected the scale of violations or whether the enforcement response was appropriately rigorous given the multi-week, high-volume nature of this release.
• OSHA: Has jurisdiction over worker safety at the Kensing facility. A 19-day leak of a classified health hazard raises questions about whether workers at the facility were protected or informed during the release period.

Concrete Actions for Kankakee County Residents and Advocates

• Contact the Kankakee County LEPC directly and request a full accounting of the Kensing release, including any air quality monitoring data, health advisories that were or were not issued, and what steps the LEPC is taking to ensure future immediate notification compliance from industrial facilities in the county.
• File a formal public records request with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency for all communications related to the Kensing release in fall 2022 and any monitoring or follow-up actions taken since the EPA settlement was finalized.
• Connect with environmental justice organizations operating in the Kankakee region. Groups like the Illinois Environmental Council and local chapters of the Sierra Club have the infrastructure to demand community health impact assessments and push for stronger local chemical safety ordinances.
• Demand that your local Kankakee County Board representatives introduce an ordinance requiring industrial facilities to provide direct community notification within 24 hours of any reportable hazardous release, independent of the federal EPCRA system that clearly failed here.
• If you lived or worked near 2525 S. Kensington Road in Kankakee during September 21 through October 10, 2022, and experienced unexplained health symptoms during that period, document and report those symptoms to your physician and to the Illinois Department of Public Health. A paper trail is the foundation of any future accountability.