Manteno citizens continue fight against proposed Chinese battery plant

[October 03, 2024]  By Catrina Barker, The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – Electric vehicle battery maker Gotion announced a year ago that it would transform a vacant Manteno, Illinois, Kmart distribution center into a $2 billion factory. Manteno residents sued the village and Gotion, arguing the plant will use toxic chemicals that are not allowed under local zoning provisions.

Representing the citizens is Robby Dube, who said that Kankakee Circuit Court Judge Lindsay Parkhurst denied the motion from the village and Gotion for judgments on the merits based only on the pleadings.

"The village and Gotion said, ‘you can’t sue us for an 11-13-15 violation, you can’t sue us for rezoning, you can’t sue us for nuisance, as a matter of law. You can’t do it.’ Then there’s the procedural attack where they [Gotion and the village] said ‘you plead another specificity.’ So what the judge did is she said ‘for every single claim they [Gotion and the village] said we couldn’t bring,’ she said ‘yes, they [the citizens] can,’” Dube said. “So on the substantive attack, the judge ruled against them.’”

Dube pointed out that the judge, when talking about the nuisance claim, said, “what you have pleaded entitles you to relief.”

"Now that’s a very big statement because that’s the judge saying, ‘if you prove what you put in this complaint about the chemicals and the traffic, you are entitled to a finding that there is a nuisance,’” said Dube. “Now she could always walk that back, but that was huge.”

Dube said the plaintiffs won on the merits, but ultimately the judge dismissed the complaint without prejudice.

"The complaint reads like a novel or thesis rather than a well pled complaint with specific short, concise allegations that can be admitted or denied," the judge wrote.

Dube explained in the original drafting of the complaint, he and the plaintiffs wanted to tell the “whole story,” and had thought that would be a good approach.

According to Dube, that means the judge asked the plaintiffs to shorten the complaint and make factual allegations. Dube plans to refile before the deadline, which is 45 days after Oct. 1.

"The public has the right to public health and public safety,” said Dube. “If you are putting in a project that violates those rights, you can bring a nuisance claim. You cannot let this plant operate because it would be so detrimental to the public health and safety that it violates my rights as a citizen.”

Dube said there are carcinogenic chemicals produced from the planned plant that could get into the water supply or air supply. He also argued Manteno’s fire department does not have the resources to put out a lithium battery fire.

The project has drawn strong support from Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who pledged at least $536 million in tax incentives to back Gotion's plans.

Dube hasn’t decided if the plaintiffs are going to include Gotion’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party in their new complaint, or if the plaintiffs will just stick with the nuisance claim.

"So her response was, ‘unless you have specific testimony or findings, I don't want to see this again.’ We have it, so we could put it in, but we will make that final determination as we are putting it together based on the judge’s feedback,” said Dube.

On Thursday, Oct. 3, Illinois U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria, and U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Michigan, will hold a roundtable in Manteno on Gotion's “troubling connections to the Chinese Communist Party” and the risks its planned facility in Illinois poses to America.

This summer, LaHood wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and stated that Gotion has ties with companies directly linked to slave labor and the genocide of Uyghurs.