Detroit-area poor face 'environmental injustice' from pollution hazards
For Sherry Griswold and Tom Gutenschwager, living just 1,000 feet from the Marathon oil refinery on Dumfries Street in Detroit means learning to endure: the odors, the thin layers of soot on new snow, the noise.
The refinery had more than 283,000 pounds of toxic releases in 2011, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Griswold and Gutenschwager said they have little doubt it affects their health.
"The state has come by and said the air is bad; they just don't do anything about it," Gutenschwager said about Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality.
They aren't alone in the daily realities they confront, according to a new report by the Sierra Club's Detroit office.
The Detroit area's poor and minority populations face greater health and environmental challenges than most communities because of their proximity to industrial pollution -- an "environmental injustice" and "human rights abuse," officials said Thursday as they released the report on the state of the environment in and around the city.
The Sierra Club called on the environmental quality department to stop issuing permits for new or modified industrial facilities that emit toxic air pollutants in Detroit until a determination is made that they do not affect already-burdened communities disproportionately. Strict limits should be set and based on analysis of the cumulative impacts residents deal with, the group said.
"We have in the city of Detroit, in the area of (ZIP code) 48217, River Rouge and Ecorse, the most polluted areas in the state of Michigan and definitely in the Midwestern states," said Rhonda Anderson, environmental justice organizer for the group.
"That surrounding community is heavily impacted -- their health and their quality of life."
The Sierra Club's assessment notes that Michigan's most-polluting industries are "located in communities principally comprised of people of color."
"These communities tend to be at overwhelmingly low socioeconomic thresholds and without legal recourse or resources with which to defend themselves or improve their domestic situations," the report states.
Griswold and Gutenschwager said they stay on Dumfries Street so Gutenschwager can keep an eye on his nearby welding shop and try to prevent the break-ins that used to occur. It also saves gas money to live within walking distance of his work, Griswold said.
Several hundred feet from their home is the refinery's flare, the burning flame atop a stack. "At times it will hiss up and make an ear-piercing sound," Gutenschwager said.
Examples of those affected cited in the report include:
• Residents living near Detroit Renewable Power, one of the nation's largest solid waste incinerators and a major emitter of nitrous oxide, which scientific studies show affects people's nervous, cardiovascular and reproductive systems in certain concentrations. Residents living in the census tracts near the facility are 94% African American and have a median household income of $18,479 per year, versus $25,787 for Detroit at large.
• Southwest Detroit ZIP code 48217, which was noted as "Michigan's most polluted ZIP code" in a 2010 Free Press report. The community is affected by vehicle pollution from nearby I-75 and industrial pollution from a host of factories.
• Ecorse, home to Great Lakes Works, a U.S. Steel facility that had more than 10.1 million pounds of toxic releases in 2010, according to EPA data. The Department of Environmental Quality found manganese levels near the site exceeded federal health protective benchmark levels. Nearly 35% of Ecorse's residents are below the poverty level, compared with a statewide average of 15.7%, according to U.S. Census data.
• Residents downriver from the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant, the largest source of discharge into the Detroit River, with 47 billion gallons of diluted raw sewage released during combined sewer overflows in 2011, the Sierra Club's report states.
• Minority public school students. About 44% of white students in Michigan attend schools in places with high industrial air pollution, compared with 81.5% of African-American students and 62.1% of Hispanic students, according to a University of Michigan study cited in the Sierra Club's report.
Affected communities have inordinately high levels of asthma, cancer, neurological disorders and birth defects, the Sierra Club assessment states.
"We would like to say that it's not OK," said Ebony Elmore, a River Rouge resident who was present when the report was released.
The report notes that these conditions run counter to a 2007 directive by then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm to promote environmental justice in the state and disallow racial, ethnic or low-income populations from bearing a disproportionate burden resulting from environmental decision making. Granholm's directive also called for giving residents "meaningful involvement" in decisions that impact their environment and health.
Anderson of the Sierra Club delivered the report to Detroit Future City offices on Russell Street. Officials with the environmental group are concerned that the long-range planning initiative to revitalize the city isn't addressing environmental justice issues adequately, she said.
Alisha Winters, a River Rouge resident and volunteer with the group, has seven children, two of whom have asthma.
"How do we change this negative into a positive?" she said. "We all get involved; we all stand together; we all partner. And we let them know this is our community, and we want clean energy, renewable energy and clean air. We're demanding it."
Don't read the comments at the source unless you want to see a lot of bullshit about bootstraps.
The refinery had more than 283,000 pounds of toxic releases in 2011, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Griswold and Gutenschwager said they have little doubt it affects their health.
"The state has come by and said the air is bad; they just don't do anything about it," Gutenschwager said about Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality.
They aren't alone in the daily realities they confront, according to a new report by the Sierra Club's Detroit office.
The Detroit area's poor and minority populations face greater health and environmental challenges than most communities because of their proximity to industrial pollution -- an "environmental injustice" and "human rights abuse," officials said Thursday as they released the report on the state of the environment in and around the city.
The Sierra Club called on the environmental quality department to stop issuing permits for new or modified industrial facilities that emit toxic air pollutants in Detroit until a determination is made that they do not affect already-burdened communities disproportionately. Strict limits should be set and based on analysis of the cumulative impacts residents deal with, the group said.
"We have in the city of Detroit, in the area of (ZIP code) 48217, River Rouge and Ecorse, the most polluted areas in the state of Michigan and definitely in the Midwestern states," said Rhonda Anderson, environmental justice organizer for the group.
"That surrounding community is heavily impacted -- their health and their quality of life."
The Sierra Club's assessment notes that Michigan's most-polluting industries are "located in communities principally comprised of people of color."
"These communities tend to be at overwhelmingly low socioeconomic thresholds and without legal recourse or resources with which to defend themselves or improve their domestic situations," the report states.
Griswold and Gutenschwager said they stay on Dumfries Street so Gutenschwager can keep an eye on his nearby welding shop and try to prevent the break-ins that used to occur. It also saves gas money to live within walking distance of his work, Griswold said.
Several hundred feet from their home is the refinery's flare, the burning flame atop a stack. "At times it will hiss up and make an ear-piercing sound," Gutenschwager said.
Examples of those affected cited in the report include:
• Residents living near Detroit Renewable Power, one of the nation's largest solid waste incinerators and a major emitter of nitrous oxide, which scientific studies show affects people's nervous, cardiovascular and reproductive systems in certain concentrations. Residents living in the census tracts near the facility are 94% African American and have a median household income of $18,479 per year, versus $25,787 for Detroit at large.
• Southwest Detroit ZIP code 48217, which was noted as "Michigan's most polluted ZIP code" in a 2010 Free Press report. The community is affected by vehicle pollution from nearby I-75 and industrial pollution from a host of factories.
• Ecorse, home to Great Lakes Works, a U.S. Steel facility that had more than 10.1 million pounds of toxic releases in 2010, according to EPA data. The Department of Environmental Quality found manganese levels near the site exceeded federal health protective benchmark levels. Nearly 35% of Ecorse's residents are below the poverty level, compared with a statewide average of 15.7%, according to U.S. Census data.
• Residents downriver from the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant, the largest source of discharge into the Detroit River, with 47 billion gallons of diluted raw sewage released during combined sewer overflows in 2011, the Sierra Club's report states.
• Minority public school students. About 44% of white students in Michigan attend schools in places with high industrial air pollution, compared with 81.5% of African-American students and 62.1% of Hispanic students, according to a University of Michigan study cited in the Sierra Club's report.
Affected communities have inordinately high levels of asthma, cancer, neurological disorders and birth defects, the Sierra Club assessment states.
"We would like to say that it's not OK," said Ebony Elmore, a River Rouge resident who was present when the report was released.
The report notes that these conditions run counter to a 2007 directive by then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm to promote environmental justice in the state and disallow racial, ethnic or low-income populations from bearing a disproportionate burden resulting from environmental decision making. Granholm's directive also called for giving residents "meaningful involvement" in decisions that impact their environment and health.
Anderson of the Sierra Club delivered the report to Detroit Future City offices on Russell Street. Officials with the environmental group are concerned that the long-range planning initiative to revitalize the city isn't addressing environmental justice issues adequately, she said.
Alisha Winters, a River Rouge resident and volunteer with the group, has seven children, two of whom have asthma.
"How do we change this negative into a positive?" she said. "We all get involved; we all stand together; we all partner. And we let them know this is our community, and we want clean energy, renewable energy and clean air. We're demanding it."
Don't read the comments at the source unless you want to see a lot of bullshit about bootstraps.