MPG was too poor to pay a fine after a chemical fire. But their owners were paid more than $1M that year??

A fire tore through a chemical plant in New Lennox, Illinois on August 3rd, 2019. The blaze consumed buildings owned and operated by MPG Industries, Inc., and its associated companies, Millridge Industries and Millridge IV. For days, the fire raged. As it burned, it unleashed the contents of several hundred drums, vats, and tanks.

I know that the picture of the company’s building I attached to this article makes it seem like it’s a dumpy little shit, but I promise that they actually contained all of this poisonous toxins within ins walls. Trust!

A toxic cocktail of hazardous substances poured into the surrounding environment. This chemical soup included known carcinogens like benzene and formaldehyde. It flowed through storm drains and ditches. It contaminated the surrounding area, crossing under Interstate 80 and discharging into a two-acre farm field.

The community was suddenly faced with an unknown threat.

The full extent of the chemicals released remains a mystery to this day.

The Corporate Playbook: How the Harm Was Done

In the immediate aftermath, MPG Industries hired a contractor to begin cleaning up the mess. But just a few days later, that cleanup crew walked off the job. Why??

Because MPG Industries told them it didn’t have the money to pay for the work.

The company basically threw its hands up.

This left state and federal agencies scrambling. The Illinois EPA and Will County had to call in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to handle the emergency. Your tax dollars were now funding a cleanup for a private company’s toxic spill.

But was the company really broke? Let’s look at the accounting books.

While claiming poverty and owing the public for an environmental cleanup, the company’s owners, Joseph Miller and his wife Phyllis Etheridge, were making it rain for themselves. Between 2021 and 2023, MPG Industries distributed a staggering $1,029,488 to Mr. Miller and Ms. Etheridge.

They did this even though the company’s liabilities exceeded its assets in each of those years. They paid themselves first, leaving the public with the toxic mess and the bill.

A Cascade of Consequences: The Real-World Impact

The decisions made by MPG’s owners had real, tangible consequences for the people and environment of Illinois.

Public Health and Safety at Risk

A flood of dangerous chemicals was released. We know about some of them.

• Benzene
• Ethylbenzene
• Formaldehyde
• Xylene
• Naphthalene

These listed here are hazardous substances known to cause serious health problems, including cancer. These toxins flowed off the site, through public storm drains, and into areas where people live and work.

Economic Ruin: Public Cost, Private Gain

The financial story here is a tale of two realities. On one side, the American public was on the hook for the cleanup. The EPA’s response actions cost $674,701.87. With interest, the total debt climbed to $702,073.54. This is money that could have gone to schools, healthcare, or infrastructure.

On the other side, the company’s owners were cashing in.

They took over a million dollars out of a company that was, by the law’s own definition, insolvent.

Environmental Degradation

The damage to the local environment was direct and widespread. The chemical runoff and firefighting water contaminated storm sewers, ditches, and culverts. This toxic slurry traveled under a major interstate highway and was ultimately discharged into a farm field. The oily, discolored substances observed by the EPA were a clear sign of the pollution that had seeped into the local ecosystem.

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

The actions of MPG Industries are a feature, not a bug, of our neoliberal, late-stage capitalist economy. The system is set up to protect owners and executives while offloading risk onto the public.

Companies like MPG are often structured as Limited Liability Companies (LLCs). This corporate veil is designed to shield the personal assets of owners from the consequences of their company’s actions. The incentive is simple and perverse: privatize profits and socialize losses.

MPG’s owners lived this creed. They took the profits for themselves and left society to clean up their hazardous waste. This is the predictable outcome of an economic model that values quarterly earnings and personal enrichment over public health and environmental stewardship.

Dodging Accountability: How the Powerful Evade Justice

So, what happened in the end? The U.S. Department of Justice sued, and the company settled. They agreed to pay back the $702,073.54 it cost the EPA to clean up the site. But here’s the kicker. The settlement, known as a Consent Decree, explicitly states that the evil corpos “do not admit any liability”.

Think about that. They caused a massive chemical spill. They claimed they couldn’t afford the cleanup. They paid themselves over a million dollars. They got sued by the federal government. And after all that, they get to write a check without ever admitting they did anything wrong.

For them, this payment is not a punishment. It’s simply the cost of doing business. The owners, who orchestrated the financial distributions from an insolvent company, face no additional penalty. They were simply added to the settlement as “Additional Covered Parties,” making them responsible for the payment alongside their companies.

They are, in effect, paying a bill with money that arguably should have been used for the cleanup in the first place. The system worked as intended: it protected the powerful from any real, personal accountability.

Reclaiming Power: Pathways to Real Change

This case screams for systemic reform. A fine that simply covers the cost of cleanup isn’t a deterrent; it’s a license to pollute. Real change requires dismantling the structures that allow this to happen.

We need to strengthen regulations to pierce the corporate veil. When owners knowingly drain assets from a company facing massive environmental liabilities, they should face personal, civil, and even criminal consequences. We need to mandate that companies handling hazardous materials are fully insured or bonded, so the public is never left holding the bag. Community-led oversight boards and empowered regulatory agencies with real enforcement teeth are not radical ideas; they are the bare minimum needed to protect people from predictable corporate harm.

Conclusion: A Story of a System, Not an Exception

The Joliet Chemical Fire is a perfect snapshot of a political and economic system that is failing us. It reveals how the relentless pursuit of profit in a deregulated, late-stage capitalist economy inevitably creates sacrifice zones and disposable communities. MPG Industries and its owners are merely actors playing the roles our system has written for them.

Until we change the late-stage capitalistic system itself, there will always be another fire, another spill, and another community left to deal with the toxic consequences.

All factual claims in this article were derived from the public court documents filed in the case of United States v. MPG Industries, Inc., et al., Civil Action No. 1:25-cv-10792, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Want to see the source for this consent decree? Click on this Department of Justice link then!: https://www.justice.gov/enrd/media/1413456/dl?inline

The legal complaint against MPG Industries can be found on the Department of Justice’s website: https://www.justice.gov/enrd/media/1413451/dl?inline