- EGLE has released a draft policy for public participation, which includes processes for evaluating environmental justice concerns and options for virtual, hybrid, or in-person meetings.
- Concerns are raised about the timing of EGLE public engagement in permitting process, with residents having limited time to consider proposals compared to regulators who have months for deliberation.
- Specific instances, such as Stellantis’ expansion in Detroit, are cited where EGLE’s decisions allegedly ignored public opposition, leading to environmental concerns.
Lawmakers and environmental advocates held a press conference last week to push for more meaningful public comment from Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy , which could influence air quality permit approvals and other actions.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) said constituents have told her that EGLE’s public engagement process should exist to protect their communities and the environment, but instead, they find the permitting decision process to be “performative.”
“They feel that the decisions to allow pollution in our communities are pre-determined,” she said. Tlaib said EGLE ignored public opposition to Stellantis’ expansion on the east side of Detroit, which allowed the company to decrease emissions in predominantly white Warren while increasing them in predominantly Black Detroit. This was followed by numerous air quality violations by the carmaker, which had failed to install proper pollution controls.
“My residents live with the impacts of these decisions,” she said. “They should be able to help to make them, not brought in to vent their concerns after a decision is as good as made.”
The press conference follows the release of EGLE’s draft policy for public participation. The policy includes processes for evaluating environmental justice concerns, potentially resulting in additional outreach, meetings and longer comment periods. It also contains language on when to hold virtual, hybrid or in-person-only meetings.
However, several speakers said the plan would do little to give residents timely access to information or help inform the agency’s decision-making.
Nick Leonard, executive director at the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, said EGLE’s public engagement process generally delays it until the end of the permitting process or sometimes avoids it altogether.
He said EGLE didn’t hold any hearings or public meetings when it made a controversial request for Environmental Protection Agency permission to remove 2022 air quality data from a Detroit monitor, which EGLE said was influenced by wildfire smoke. This decision was followed by the EPA’s removal of metro Detroit’s “nonattainment” designation for ozone, allowing the area to avoid additional stricter regulation under the Clean Air Act.
Leonard said the agency needs to “center people rather than polluters.” He recommended the agency do more to meet residents where they’re at in welcoming forums, engage residents not just when required to do so and ensure this engagement addresses environmental justice concerns.
Current process gives polluters a ‘head start’
Several speakers raised the issue that regulators often have months to consider a permit request while the public is generally given a brief window to consider these proposals.
“A corporate polluter has a huge head start with months of back-and-forth with EGLE,” Tlaib said. We have to rebalance the scales and make public participation and community input actually matter.”
Southwest Detroit community activist Theresa Landrum said a better engagement process would involve giving residents more time to consider permits, but also helping them understand the often technical language that’s included in permit applications and used at public meetings.
She said EGLE’s public engagement hearings should include webinars and tutorials to help residents understand technical language they may be unfamiliar with, like the abbreviations for chemicals or the meaning of terms such as parts per million or parts per billion.
Several speakers emphasized that any changes EGLE makes to its public engagement process must be measured by how it influences the agency’s decisions.
“Meaningful engagement produces results,” said Donele Wilkins, CEO of the Green Door Initiative, a non-profit promoting environmental justice. “The comments (from residents) should improve the health outcomes and impacts in our communities.”
EGLE expects to issue the final draft of its public participation policy this spring or summer.