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Koppers, Inc.
Cicero, Illinois
Cook County
Background
Koppers Inc. operates a chemical manufacturing facility at 3900 South Laramie Ave. in Cicero. The plant produces chemical oil products, creosotes, coal tar pitches, coal tar distillate, naphthalene and phthalic anhydride from coal and petroleum tars. Its emission units include distillation equipment, storage tanks, load-in and load-out equipment, piping, boilers, heaters, a wastewater treatment system and pollution control equipment.
The Illinois EPA permits facilities and specifies the environmental rules that apply to each emission unit. These permits set emission limits and outline the testing, monitoring, recordkeeping and reporting needed to demonstrate compliance. Facilities must obtain construction and operating permits from the Illinois EPA before they build or modify emission units.
To assess compliance, the Illinois EPA conducts inspections and reviews compliance reports. When inspectors or analysts identify violations, the agency issues a Violation Notice, which starts the pre-enforcement process.
Enforcement
Since 2020, the Illinois EPA has issued four Violation Notices to Koppers for alleged violations of permit conditions and environmental regulations. For those violation notices, Koppers proposed Compliance Commitment Agreements to resolve the alleged violation, however, the Illinois EPA determined a referral to the Attorney General to resolve all outstanding violations was appropriate. Below are the Violation Notices, Proposed Compliance Agreements and Notice of Intent to Pursue Legal Action.
Since the original case was referred to the Illinois Attorney General, the Illinois EPA has continued to keep the Illinois Attorney General’s office updated on additional violations.
In May 2024, the Illinois EPA notified the Illinois Attorney General of additional violations from a series of Deviation Reports submitted by Koppers, in which they waived the requirements of Section 31 of the Act to meet and discuss the violations with ways to get in compliance. This action allowed the Illinois EPA to go straight to referring the case to the Attorney General.
In August 2024, the Illinois EPA notified the Illinois Attorney General of additional violations at Koppers. Koppers waived the requirements of Section 31.
The August violations followed 19 complaints about Koppers’ operations, which prompted an Agency inspection that found the facility out of compliance. Additional violations were also identified through submitted deviation reports.
Two months later in October 2024, additional violations were identified and sent to Illinois Attorney General. These additional violations were all noted in Deviations Reports from Koppers.
In April 2026, The Illinois EPA alerted the Attorney General to additional violations.
Those violations stem from an August 2025 inspection of the facility’s naphthalene storage tanks, distillation plant, transfer racks, and process heater. Inspectors identified multiple violations across permit conditions, state rules, and NESHAP.
Contact
For more information, please contact the Illinois EPA Office of Community Relations. Additional documents not available on this webpage may be obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request or through IEPA Document Explorer.