H. Kramer Settlement: 2013 Consent Decree and 2021 Soil Cleanup

The H. Kramer settlement is actually two settlements involving the same Pilsen brass and bronze foundry: a 2013 federal-and-state consent decree that required roughly $3 million in new pollution controls, a $35,000 civil penalty, and a $40,000 school-bus retrofit project to address illegal lead air emissions, and a 2021 agreement under which H. Kramer, BNSF Railway, and the City of Chicago together agreed to pay $1.95 million to reimburse the EPA for cleaning lead-contaminated soil from properties around the plant.¹²

What Triggered the Enforcement

In January 2009, the federal standard for airborne lead dropped tenfold, from 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter to 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter, measured as a rolling three-month average.³ After community complaints, the Illinois EPA installed an air monitor in January 2010 on the roof of Manuel Perez Jr. Elementary School, about two blocks from the H. Kramer foundry at 1345 West 21st Street.¹

Readings blew past the new limit. Across three consecutive three-month windows, the monitor recorded:

October–December 2010: 0.241 µg/m³, roughly 60% above the standard
November 2010–January 2011: 0.294 µg/m³, nearly double the standard
December 2010–February 2011: 0.279 µg/m³

A single day in December 2010 registered more than ten times the federal limit.⁴ The Illinois EPA named H. Kramer as the “primary contributor” to the elevated readings.³ Toxic Release Inventory data going back years had already shown the plant averaging roughly 2,544 pounds per year in fugitive lead emissions and 1,521 pounds per year in stack emissions between 1994 and 2003, much of it escaping through cracks in the building’s walls and roof.⁵

The Illinois EPA referred the company to Attorney General Lisa Madigan in April 2011. On August 30, 2011, the State of Illinois filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court (People of the State of Illinois v. H. Kramer & Co., No. 11 CH 30569), alleging violations of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act, state air pollution regulations, and common-law public nuisance, and asserting the company had created a “substantial danger to the environment, public health and welfare.” Three days later, on September 2, 2011, the court entered an Agreed Preliminary Interim Injunction requiring roof repairs, stack removal, high-speed doors, revised dust management, and production limits on two lead alloys.⁶ On November 22, 2011, the EPA formally designated the area around the plant as “nonattainment” for the 2008 lead standard.¹

The 2013 Consent Decree

On January 31, 2013, the United States and the State of Illinois filed a joint complaint and proposed consent decree in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (United States v. H. Kramer & Co., No. 1:13-cv-00771). The federal complaint alleged Clean Air Act violations, including failures to meet National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for secondary nonferrous metals processing and Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources.¹

The decree resolved both the state and federal cases and required H. Kramer to:

Install roughly $3 million in new pollution controls, including pulse-jet baghouses, dust collectors, spark arrestors, and HEPA filter boxes on two rotary furnaces, with completion required by September 1, 2013.
Pay a $35,000 civil penalty, split evenly between the U.S. Treasury and the State of Illinois.
Fund a $40,000 supplemental environmental project retrofitting eleven school buses serving the Pilsen area with diesel emission controls.
Conduct ongoing stack testing and continuous parametric monitoring of the new filter systems, and hold back production of two lead alloys until 30 days after the equipment was operating.

Both the EPA settlement summary and Bloomberg Law’s contemporary reporting confirmed the roughly $3 million control cost and the penalty figures.¹⁷

What Happened After the Controls Went In

H. Kramer had both new filter systems running by August 12, 2013, beating the September 1 deadline.⁸ The parametric monitoring built into the decree includes an alarm that sounds and requires immediate filter replacement when pressure readings fall outside the manufacturer’s specifications.

Air readings dropped quickly. The Perez Elementary monitor, which had peaked at 0.580 µg/m³ in December 2010, averaged 0.02 µg/m³ across 2014 and the first half of 2015, and 0.01 µg/m³ in the second half of 2015. Monthly averages stayed below the federal standard from the start of 2011 onward.⁸ Emissions tests in 2012, September 2013, and March 2016 all showed lead concentrations at the plant within regulatory limits. On March 28, 2018, the EPA redesignated the Chicago area as in attainment for the 2008 lead standard and approved Illinois’s maintenance plan, which carries enforceable emission limits on H. Kramer.⁹

The 2021 Soil Cleanup Settlement

The 2013 decree stopped the air emissions but did not deal with lead already deposited on the ground. The EPA began investigating residential soil contamination in Pilsen in 2011 and did formal sampling in 2012 and 2013.¹⁰

Cleanup ran in two phases. Operable Unit 1 covered a city-owned alley and a BNSF Railway spur next to the foundry and finished in summer 2016. Operable Unit 2 targeted residential yards where the EPA attributed contamination to airborne lead from H. Kramer. Of 95 residential properties checked, 68 were cleaned by the EPA, meaning removal of surface soil containing lead above 400 parts per million, backfill with clean material, and yard restoration. Two more were cleaned by their owners, eight had acceptable levels, and the rest either refused access or had no exposed soil to sample. That phase wrapped up in 2018.¹⁰

In December 2021, the EPA announced a proposed consent decree under which H. Kramer, BNSF Railway, and the City of Chicago would together pay $1.95 million to reimburse the federal government for cleanup costs from the 2015–2018 work. The money was slated for the “Pilsen Area Soil Site Special Account” for future response actions in Pilsen or elsewhere in Chicago, or for transfer to the EPA’s Hazardous Substance Superfund.² The agreement was lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and was subject to a 30-day public comment period before final court approval.¹¹ The public breakdown does not specify each party’s share of the $1.95 million.

Where Things Stand Now

H. Kramer & Co. continues to operate at 1345 West 21st Street in Pilsen under the emission limits set by the 2013 consent decree and Illinois’s state maintenance plan.¹² The 2018 redesignation to attainment status indicates that lead concentrations have stayed within federal standards since the controls went in, and the company remains subject to the parametric monitoring, stack testing, and reporting requirements built into the settlement.⁹

One boundary is worth flagging for anyone reading these settlements as personal-injury resolutions: neither the 2013 decree nor the 2021 cost-recovery agreement is a compensation fund for residents. The civil penalty went to the U.S. Treasury and the State of Illinois, the bus retrofit money went to a supplemental project, and the $1.95 million reimburses the EPA for money it already spent. The Illinois EPA has also noted that the main sources of childhood lead exposure generally remain flaking lead paint, contaminated soil, dust, and drinking water, and that indoor air testing at Perez, Juarez, and Walsh schools in March 2011 found no lead contamination inside the buildings.³ The available record does not include blood lead level data for Pilsen residents or a formal community health study tied to the foundry’s emissions.

1
U.S. EPA. H. Kramer Company Settlement
2
U.S. EPA. EPA to Recover $1.95 Million for Cleanup Costs in Chicago’s Pilsen Neighborhood
3
Illinois EPA. Pilsen Neighborhood Lead
4
CBS News Chicago. The Smell of Spring Not So Fresh
5
Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization. H. Kramer Pollution
6
U.S. EPA (Archived). H. Kramer Consent Decree
7
Bloomberg Law. EPA, Illinois Reach $3 Million Settlement to Cut Chicago-Based Copper Smelter Fumes
8
U.S. EPA (Archived). Air Issues in Chicago’s Pilsen Neighborhood
9
Federal Register. Air Plan Approval: Illinois Redesignation of the Chicago and Granite City Areas to Attainment of the Lead NAAQS
10
U.S. EPA. Pilsen Area Soil Site
11
Regional Associations. EPA to Recover $1.95 Million for Cleanup Costs in Chicago’s Pilsen Neighborhood
12
H. Kramer & Co. Contact Us