Carus Chemical’s (Carus LLC) primary product, potassium permanganate, is best known as a chemical for treating municipal drinking water. It was originally made for use in explosives during WWI, and it is used in mining, fracking, and refining crude oil. Illicit drug manufacturers also make cocaine with it.
The company also produces phosphates and has current contracts with the Department of Defense. It is protected from FOIA laws as a chemical weapons manufacturer under Executive Order 2023-03 signed by Illinois Governor Pritzker in March 2023, shortly after the Carus chemical factory warehouse started on fire and rained chemicals onto the town of LaSalle, Illinois.
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Protect Starved Rock is a resource for communities surrounding Starved Rock State Park, LaSalle County, Illinois. Protect Starved Rock was founded during the mining hearings in 2014 when mining companies descended upon the rural community of Utica, Illinois, and began buying up the thousands of acres of rich Midwest farmland to strip it for silica…
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Chemical test results were revealed at the February 6 city hall meeting. Hazardous levels of granular chemicals landed on LaSalle residents, homes, and yards during the explosion at Carus Chemical on January 11, 2023. Test results of the granular product came back at 27,600 mg/kg of manganese and 133,000 mg/kg of potassium. Citizens who attended…
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Brownfield was hired by the City of LaSalle to conduct soil tests after the fire. However, they only tested for a few chemicals and did not test for heavy metals. The EPA rest results (posted above) show high levels of several metals and chemicals that were not tested for by the company hired by the…
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“The basic function of the Freedom of Information Act is to ensure informed citizens, vital to the functioning of a democratic society.” – FOIA.gov Records requests: State records request generator: https://splc.org/lettergenerator/ RCFP’s federal FOIA generator: https://www.ifoia.org/ US Dept of Justice: http://www.FOIA.gov EPA, OSHA & Compliance: Illinois Emergency Management Agency IEMA: https://public.iema.state.il.us/FOIAHazmatSearch/ US EPA toxic release…
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Together, the companies have purchased hundreds of parcels of land and now own more than 9,000 acres in LaSalle, a Civil Eats investigation has found. The majority of those acres are former or current farmland. Silica mining is also prevalent in other parts of Illinois and regions of Wisconsin and Missouri.
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Did you know that PQ in Utica is owned by the Koch Brothers, and makes fracking chemicals that are being shipped to Canada and all over the U.S.? Metso Pentabead is classified as a corrosive hazardous material. Below is a link to material data safety sheets for Metso Penta bead. The first precautionary statement is,…
Protect Starved Rock and The Illinois Valley 
Thank you for this! Well researched and it highlights the problem of making poisonous substances and the disregard the companies have for communities. Also the laughable enforcement and regulation by the EPA. How many more tragedies like this or the train derailments of toxic chemicals need to happen?
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