The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) released a report in May 2025 that had been commissioned by Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth in 2019. Duckworth had requested a study of the health impacts of the air quality in Sauget, IL, an area with chemical companies and historical toxic waste sites from industry. The agency did not have enough air data to write a report, so they sent the EPA on a mission to get some. The EPA did some air monitoring in 2021, however, ATSDR's May report shows that it is still insufficient.

You can find the report on our "Reporting and Links" page under "ATSDR's Health Consultation for Veolia's neighbors".

In our own review of the report, we found that EPA's sampling for Volatile Organic Chemicals, which is a category that includes many carcinogens, respiratory, skin and eye irritants, was especially sparse - constraining ATSDR to consider only three days of monitoring over a rainy weekend in August 27-29, 2021 and data that was decades old. This sparsity led ATSDR to conclude that more monitoring is desperately needed.

We agree that more- and more robust- monitoring is needed to achieve the goal of clean air compliance in and around Sauget and its downwind neighbors: South St. Louis, Cahokia Heights and East St. Louis.

This designation means we have more unhealthy air days and action is needed to reduce ozone pollution and protect the health of our citizens.

https://dnr.mo.gov/document/st-louis-ozone-nonattainment-area-reclassification-serious-presentation-april-24-2025

After Friday March 14 thunderstorms and tornadoes, St. Louisans woke up March 15 to a thick haze of particulate-matter filled air which ran our air quality index (AQI) off the charts- as high at 800 on the scale in some places. Good air on the AQI is 0-35. St. Louis was at 735 on the Missouri Dept. of Natural Resource's scale. Individual air monitors were even higher at some locations nearer the riverfront.  

Visibility was so low that the Arch could not be seen from its usual places.

Follow this link to keep up: https://dnr.mo.gov/air/hows-air/current-air-quality 

• EPA rule changes under the Trump administration redefined:

  • • The acceptable levels of toxins in the air

    • The list of toxins being monitored

    • The monitoring process

• The EPA issued a Clean Air Act violation to Veolia on September 23, 2021. Specifically, Veolia violated the carbon monoxide emission standard, which is an indication that equipment was not properly destroying the hazardous waste that was fed to it. 

• The EPA also found that Veolia failed to operate its equipment within acceptable ranges needed for proper pollution control, allowed storage tanks to leak vapors, and emitted more nitrogen oxide than is allowed.