Facility Profile ×
Crawford Generating Station
3501 South Pulaski RoadChicago, IL 60809
Owner - Operator
Midwest Generation LLC
Impoundment Hazard Rating
None
Well Count
2
total with2
reporting at least one exceedance| Well ID | Exceedances | Status |
|---|---|---|
| MW-1 | 16 | 16 |
| MW-2 | 14 | 14 |
Total Exceedances / Total Samples
30 / 264 11%
Pollutant Details
About Crawford Generating Station
Midwest Generation's Crawford Generating Station and its 2,750 square-foot ash pond were located on a 72 acre site along the north bank of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The site is just a few hundred feet from Little Village, a Latino neighborhood on Chicago’s southwest side. Crawford and its ash pond were permanently closed in August 2012 after citizens exerted pressure and several lawsuits were filed over air pollution. The plant had been operating since 1925 and was one of the oldest coal-fired power plants in the country. At the time it closed, the plant’s two generating units could generate electricity from both coal and natural gas.
Groundwater monitoring at the site was not required until 2010, after the large TVA Kingston ash spill in Tennessee in 2008. In 2012, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency determined that the site’s ash impoundment operations caused groundwater contamination at the site.
For more information about groundwater monitoring at coal waste disposal sites in Illinois, see the 2011 EIP and Prairie Rivers Network’s report "Illinois at Risk".