The IQMP Quantum Computing Campus will reportedly be a gift to the world, but will it be a gift to current, nearby residents?
In July 2024, Governor Pritzker announced that the US Steel South Works Brownfield would become the site of what could be the largest-ever quantum computer and that it would become a gift to the world for all the complex problems it would solve. Related Midwest was named the developer of the entire 420-plus-acre site, with PsiQuantum becoming the anchor tenant and enticing other partners to sign on. PsiQuantum would occupy 125 acres, building near 87th Street, to create and operate the computer, including a massive freezer called a “cryogenic cooling facility,” which is needed to keep the computer running at extremely cold temperatures.
ETHOS (Environment, Transportation, Health & Open Space), a South Shore environmental justice group working in coalition with several other Southeast Side organizations, has a number of concerns. ETHOS and the coalition are demanding environmental protections (not just for the area’s birds and wildlife, but for residents’ health) and for written, legally binding community benefits. The most immediate concern: Is it safe to build in this brownfield? Won’t toxic dust from the ground go in the air and/or seep into our drinking water?
Two City ordinances have now proceeded rapidly through city hall. The first ordinance provides a substantial property tax break for 30 years and waives a number of permit fees. The second ordinance rezones the entire 420 acres for industrial use with waterway rights. Both ordinances have now passed. To date, DARPA (the research and development arm of the US Department of Defense), IBM, a UIC quantum research facility, and a new Advocate Trinity Hospital have signed on as partners, though no architectural renderings for these partners were included in the blanket rezoning ordinance. Related Midwest will have the ability to build up to 17-story buildings on any part of the property. Groundbreaking is projected to be as soon as February 2025.
There has been a history of failed planned developments on this brownfield. The last developer did extensive testing and found toxins in the ground that they could not afford to remediate. They signed a non-disclosure agreement on these test results with US Steel to get out of their purchase agreement. What did they find that was so toxic that US Steel wanted to keep it secret?
Four City-hosted public meetings have now been held on this development.
ETHOS does not doubt that Related Midwest and Psi Quantum will protect their mostly highly paid, PhD-level staff, but will our working class, Black and Brown current residents, be treated with equal regard? Related Midwest has thus far refused to discuss the topic of toxins and remediation, generally deferring to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA). The IEPA has often verbally waved around a fourteen-year-old letter that their department issued, stating that “no further remediation” was necessary. ETHOS found documentation from the IEPA website archives, that less than a third of the standard number of testing samples were taken that resulted in that “no further remediation” letter. The findings themselves, of what toxins were found in the ground, where, and in what concentrations, have not been made transparent and readily available to the public.
Alice Walker once said, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” ETHOS calls upon South Shore residents to stand up, speak out, and demand that we deserve environmental protections. We should not be poisoned through breathing in or drinking toxic construction dust and come down with mysterious cancers ten years from now because the powers-that-be want to move this development forward at a reckless pace. Since our tax dollars are subsidizing this, shouldn’t we also get benefits like a school-to-jobs pipeline (shouldn’t a rising tide lift all boats for our children?), protections against gentrification and housing displacement, amenities for area parks, and an increase in public transportation routes? What about an East 79th Street grocery store or lead pipe removal from our yards and schools? ETHOS has been meeting monthly, in person, since August on the 2nd or 3rd Wednesdays at St. Luke’s MB Church, 73rd & Coles. To find out more, join the ETHOS
Facebook Group, send an email to ethos.blockclub@gmail.com, or watch for meeting notices. ETHOS will soon be getting a phone number as well. Join us!
A. Anne Holcomb
Co-chair
ETHOS
