“Protecting less advantaged communities is complicated further in Illinois by a law that prohibits the state Environmental Protection Agency from considering the cumulative effect of multiple industry permits, says Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council. The effect of the prohibition is that a neighborhood might be beset by various types of pollution — from power plants, sewage treatment plants, incinerators and waste sites — that, if looked at individually, do not exceed legal limits. But cumulatively, they can make life miserable.”
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