Chicago Department of Environment is back, but needs to get bigger

We were happy to see Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget propose a much-needed resurrection of the city’s Department of the Environment, which was disbanded more than a decade ago under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a cost-cutting move.

But we trust taking 10 employees from an existing office and adding four more to create the new department will be just a first step. At the time of its dismantling, the previous department had about 60 employees, though many stayed on in other departments.

To be effective, the department needs a deep staff to handle a wide range of issues, with enough people to eventually enforce environmental rules and lead and implement initiatives that protect community health and the environment.

Under Johnson’s proposal, the Department of Public Health will continue to inspect and cite polluters, but that’s a role that really should be in the hands of the resurrected DOE, which should have a specialized staff with the technical expertise to understand issues involving pollutants and toxins.

According to the Sun-Times’ Brett Chase, a 2019 analysis found environmental enforcement dropped significantly after Emanuel axed the original DOE. Fortunately, the new department is expected to bring over some well-qualified people, including the highly respected Angela Tovar, now the city’s chief sustainability officer, to head it. Tovar, as a department head, will be at the cabinet level and at the table when environmental issues are discussed.

The challenge now is to reintegrate the functions that were distributed to other agencies when the original DOE shut down. Chicago faces no shortage of environmental issues. Lead in drinking water. Communities beset by pollutants. A transition to renewable energy. Local impacts of climate change. Sewer overflows that pollute the river and lake. Increasing the energy efficiency of buildings. Even, as we saw last week, the need to protect migratory birds from dying by the hundreds as they strike bird-unfriendly windows at McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center.

It’s good to see Johnson follow through on a campaign promise to re-establish the DOE, since environmentalists pointed out that Chicago was the only major city without such a department. Yes, it’s a challenge to make the budget numbers add up, but we hope the mayor and the City Council will find ways to protect Chicagoans by expanding the department in this and coming years.

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