"For more than six years, a power plant that towers over Chicago's Southeast Side repeatedly has belched out smoke so thick it violates air pollution laws and aggravates respiratory illnesses for residents nearby.

The coal-fired State Line Energy power plant near the Indiana-Illinois border in Hammond exceeded its permit limit for smoke thickness more than 1,700 times since the beginning of 2004. The company claimed to have valid excuses for some of the violations but had no justification for 927 of them."
 
Gitte Laasby reports for the Southtown Star October 5, 2010. [2]