A coalition of local environmental groups will announce new steps in their efforts to clean up coal plants in Illinois tomorrow.

Details are sparse, but Natural Resources Defense Council spokesman Josh Mogerman says the announcement will be related to legal issues. 

The announcement will take place at Dvorak Park, 1119 W. Cullerton, in view of Midwest Generation’s Fisk power plant in Pilsen.

Brian Urbaszewski director of environmental health programs for Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago, says local environmental groups have been working for over a decade to clean up that plant and others in Illinois.

Urbaszewski says the movement began back in 1999 when groups approached the Illinois legislature to author policy that would help modernize older plants. The groups were unsuccessful in Springfield. They then turned their attention to Chicago, pressing for a city ordinance that would cap emissions at Fisk and the Crawford plant in Little Village. 

That effort didn't work. Environmental activists also joined with Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s to challenge federal permits granted to Fisk and Crawford.