O'Hare Official Fired Over Lapsed Permit

A $91,368-a-year assistant aviation commissioner who once ran Meigs Field has been fired by the city for allegedly allowing O'Hare Airport to operate with an expired air emission permit.

The state pollution certificate that Bill Brogan allegedly failed to renew applies to fixed emission sources at O'Hare, such as fuel tanks, underground storage tanks, emergency generators, boilers and tanks used to store runway de-icing materials.

The five-year permit -- known as a Title V air permit -- expired July 19, 2006. It did not apply to vehicles, including aircraft, buses, construction equipment or snowplows.

Last month, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency informed City Hall that it was operating "with an expired air emission permit for O'Hare and a lack of annual compliance certifications," according to Aviation Department spokeswoman Wendy Abrams.

The Daley administration was further informed that it had "exceeded its gasoline usage limit for 2005" for the fuel tanks and other fixed emission sources in question, Abrams said.

OUTSIDE EXPERT HIRED

Brogan -- an assistant commissioner who ran Meigs before Mayor Daley's infamous midnight destruction in March 2003 -- was fired, effective Dec. 29.

"The city takes these issues very seriously. Simply put, we did not file the appropriate documentation with the Illinois EPA in a timely manner," Abrams said.

"Since we learned of this, we have been working very closely and cooperatively with the Illinois EPA to address and resolve their concerns as quickly as possible. We have also hired an outside environmental expert, who is helping us prepare these forms and other submittals on our behalf."

State EPA spokeswoman Maggie Carson said there are no fines tied to the violations, nor was O'Hare in danger of being shut down. The city will be allowed to operate on an expired permit until a new one is issued.

'OUR GOAL IS COMPLIANCE'

"It's a problem. This process was put in place for a very good reason: air quality and protection of public health. These are important issues. This is an important facility. Our goal is compliance," she said.

Noting that Illinois municipalities fail to renew EPA permits "on a fairly regular basis," Carson said, "These Title V permits are large and complex -- full of a lot of math way beyond my skill level . . . to determine potential air emissions under a given set of circumstances. Many times, these are multiple volumes of three-ring binders full of documents. It's a very time-consuming process on both ends."

The lapse comes at a time when the city is in the early stages of Daley's O'Hare expansion project.

The five-year permit expired shortly after Aviation Commissioner Nuria Fernandez took over a department touched by the city hiring scandal. Before her appointment, the $190,764-a-year commissioner's job had been vacant for months.

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