Crawford Station

Crawford Generating Station was a coal−fired power plant built in 1924.[1] It was located in the South Lawndale community of Chicago, Illinois.

Crawford Generating Station
Crawford Station (1987)
Image: HAER−Historic American Engineering Record.
CountryUnited States
LocationSouth Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago
Coordinates41°49′43″N 87°43′22″W
StatusDecommissioned
Decommission date2012
Owner(s)Midwest Generation

It was closed in 2012 after a long battle with the community over pollution, like the nearby Fisk Generating Station. Both stations were owned and operated by Midwest Generation, a subsidiary of Edison International.[2] Crawford and Fisk Stations were among the last standing coal generating facilities within a major U.S. city at their time of retirement. Demolition of the plant began in 2019.[3][4]

History

Crawford Station was designed by architects Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, the successor of the firm that designed Union Station, Soldier Field, The Field Museum, and The Merchandise Mart.[5] The station sat on a 72-acre area consisting of buildings and power generating infrastructure and provided storage for over 300,000 tons of coal.[5] The plant's architectural style has been termed "Industrial Gothic" and makes use of red-brick and stonework masonry, Modern Gothic forms, and renaissance-revival detailing.[5]

The station began operation in 1925.[6] At the time it was the largest of five generating stations that served the city of Chicago, producing a capacity of 750,000 kilowatts.[6] The station was acquired by Midwest Generation when the company was founded in 1999.[6] Midwest Generation also owned and operated the nearby Fisk Generating Station.

Crawford Station was closed in 2012 because owner Midwest Generation determined that the needed environmental retrofits to meet federal air standards were financially impractical.[7]

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) had represented workers at Commonwealth Edison generating plants since World War II, after a company-dominated representative group, called the Utility Employees Union, was deemed illegitimate by the NLRB in 1942.[8]

Strike

In June 2001, IBEW Local Union 15, with approximately 1,150 members working at seven fossil fuel generating stations throughout Illinois, went on strike against Midwest Generation when contract negotiations broke down. After two months, Local 15 members voted on August 31 to return to their jobs. The union made an unconditional offer to return to work while still negotiating an agreement.

"Some of the guys were hurting financially, that's why we voted to go back to work," said Tom O'Reilly, Ass't Business Manager for Local 15. "We have no intention of agreeing with the company's current proposal." Midwest rejected that offer and locked out all of its workers who honored the picket line at the time IBEW Local 15 made the offer to return. Faced with a lockout, the union accepted Midwest Generation's contract offer and the locked-out employees returned to work nearly seven weeks later under the terms of a new agreement which was less favorable to employees.

Immediately after the company instituted the lockout, IBEW Local 15 filed an unfair labor practice charge with Region 13 claiming that the lockout was unlawful. The case was submitted to the NLRB's Division of Advice and in March 2002, the Regional Director for Region 13 issued a complaint against Midwest Generation. The complaint alleged that the lockout unlawfully targeted employees based on their union activity because the company permitted employees to continue to work during the lockout if they had not struck, or if they had ceased to participate in the strike prior to the union's unconditional offer to return.

The case was transferred to the NLRB in May 2002 and in September 2004, by a 2–1 panel vote, the George W. Bush-appointed Board found that Midwest Generation had not violated the NLRA. In October 2005, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the Board's decision and remanded the case back to the Board with instructions to find that the lockout violated Section 8(a)(1) and (3) of the Act because it unlawfully targeted employees based on their union activity. With respect to the remedy, the Seventh Circuit directed the Board to consider whether the lockout coerced the employees into accepting the contract offer, thereby voiding the agreement. In 2006, the Supreme Court declined to hear Midwest Generation's appeal.

In March 2008, the Board accepted the Seventh Circuit's remand and ordered that the employees who were locked out be made whole for the period of the lockout. In addition, the Board remanded the case to an administrative law judge to consider voiding the contract. In the meantime, Midwest Generation and IBEW Local 15 had successfully negotiated a successor collective bargaining agreement that replaced the contract from the 2001 negotiations.

Chief Judge Giannasi oversaw extensive settlement talks that resulted in a global settlement of all issues related to the lockout, including the potential contract voiding issue. The parties worked cooperatively to calculate the losses that employees suffered as a direct result of the lockout. In November 2008, the parties agreed upon approximately $16 million in backpay and other damages, including 401(k)and other reimbursable losses.

Demolition

Demolition of the plant began in 2019.[3][4] On December 30, 2019, a worker fell to his death, and demolition was halted.[4][9] The wife of the deceased worker has filed a lawsuit against the developers of the site, Hilco Redevelopment Partners.[10] Demolition work resumed on January 16, 2020.[11] On April 11, 2020, the concrete smokestack was imploded, blanketing the Little Village neighborhood with toxic dust.[12][13][14][15] Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued a stop work order, and a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of residents whose health may have been harmed.[12][14][15][16] On May 5, 2020, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed suit against Hilco and its demolition contractors MCM Management Corp and Controlled Demolition Inc. for violating state pollution laws.[17]

Emission reductions

Crawford Station reduced sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 30% and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by 48% in 2001 through the purchase of lower sulfur coal and the installation of new technologies.[6]

In 2005, the U.S. Department of Energy funded a mercury control project to test Activated Carbon Injection technology at Crawford Station. Crawford become one of the first coal-fired power plants in the country to install permanent mercury controls in 2008.[6] The new technology removed mercury by 90%.[6] Controls to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by 70% were installed in 2011.[6]

Station records
  • 2004: Crawford Unit 7 achieves a 108-day record for the longest continuous run.[6]
  • 2005: Record for equivalent forced outage rate at 2.30%.[6]
  • 2007: Crawford Unit 8 achieves a record run of 104 consecutive days. The station also reaches one year injury-free.[6]
  • 2008: Achieves a top safety performance in the Midwest Generation station fleet after have no Days Away, Restricted Duty or Transfer (DART) injuries.[6]
  • 2009: The station sets its all-time safety record after two years without a lost work-day accident.[6]
  • 2010: Record for equivalent availability at 92.89%.[6]
  • 2012: Achieves one year injury-free.[6]
  • Crawford Station viewed from the north (2019)
  • Crawford Station (2019)
  • Crawford Station viewed from the southwest (2019)

See also
  • Coal-fired power stations in Illinois
  • West Side, Chicago

References
  1. Wernau, Julie (30 August 2012). "Closure of Chicago's Crawford, Fisk electric plants ends coal era". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 21 February 2013.
  2. Administrator, US EPA, Region 5, Office of the Regional. "Midwest Generation - Crawford Station and Fisk Station Sites". www3.epa.gov. Retrieved 2015-12-10.
  3. Peña, Mauricio. "Fire Breaks Out At Old Crawford Coal Plant Wednesday In Little Village, Officials Say", Block Club Chicago. February 27, 2019. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
  4. Peña, Mauricio. "Worker Falls To His Death In 'Tragic Accident' At Crawford Coal Plant In Little Village", Block Club Chicago. December 31, 2019. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
  5. Preservation Chicago (2014). "Preservation Chicago Unveils the 2014 Chicago 7 Most Threatened...Crawford and Fisk Power Stations" (PDF).
  6. Midwest Generation, LLC (August 30, 2012). "Fisk and Crawford Generating Stations: The Power That Built Chicago".
  7. "Closure of Chicago's Crawford, Fisk electric plants ends coal era". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2015-12-10.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-04-08. Retrieved 2019-07-21.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. Peña, Mauricio. "Demolition Of Crawford Coal Plant Suspended After Worker Falls To His Death", Block Club Chicago. January 6, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
  10. Peña, Mauricio. "Wife Of Worker Who Fell To His Death At Crawford Coal Plant Demolition Sues Developers", Block Club Chicago. January 7, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
  11. Peña, Mauricio. "After Worker's Death, Hilco Resumes Work At Old Crawford Coal Plant Site In Little Village", Block Club Chicago. January 21, 2020. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
  12. Rebik, Dana. "Attorney preparing to file lawsuit after Little Village demolition left neighborhood covered in smoke", WGN-TV. April 13, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  13. Armentrout, Mitchell. "Watch: Smokestack imploded despite activists' pleas, blanketing Little Village in dust cloud", Chicago Sun-Times. April 11, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  14. "'Utterly Unacceptable:' Lightfoot Promises Action After Demolition Coats Neighborhood in Dust", WMAQ-TV. April 12, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  15. "City Investigating After Dust Cloud Blankets Little Village Following Crawford Power Plant Smokestack Implosion", WBBM-TV. April 11, 2020. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  16. "Federal class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Little Village residents after smokestack demolition", WGN-TV. April 15, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  17. Spielman, Fran. "Illinois sues Hilco over smokestack demolition in Little Village", Chicago Sun-Times. May 5, 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
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