Environment Government Business A Snapshot of Chris Cahnovsky, Enforcement Manager, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.


by ALISTAIR SIDDONS - Date: 2007-03-11 - Word Count: 203 Share This!

CHRIS CAHNOVSKY is an enforcement manager for the Illinois Environmental Proection Agency. The protection of the land - nine counties of it in the state of Illinois - has kept Chris Cahnovsky busy for 15 years.

In that time he's been shot at with a nail gun. He's been driven at. He's dealt with the ‘garbage' left behind after illegal drugs labs have been shut down - ‘bazooka', a form of methamphetamine, is the latest craze in poverty-stricken rural areas of Illinois. He's even known people who'd rather litigate than pay a $100 fine.

He once managed a toxic chemical spill from a derailed freight train in Tamaroa.

And there's a hideous problem on Cahnovsky's patch: petroleum vapour from the big refineries seeps right into occupied homes in Hartford, especially after heavy rain. The Illinois Attorney General's office has filed lawsuits - for groundwater contamination and vapour intrusion.

But ask Cahnovsky to pick a single worst offender in his entire career, and the answer comes back immediately: 'Chemetco.'

He calls the corporation ‘recalcitrant violators.'

©Alistair Siddons 2006

Alistair Siddonsis the editor of the trip flare and recently published a study of the criminal environmental case, Chemetco.

analysis and comment on global environmental issues and business ethics


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