Overview:
- Stellantis has been granted a permit to increase emissions at its Detroit plant, which was required to install odor-control technology to keep paint odors down.
- The increase in emissions results from a regenerative thermal oxidizer, which is used to control odors from the plant.
- The permit comes amid a resolution of a years-long civil rights fight over air pollution at the plant between Stellantis, Detroit residents, and the city, state, and federal governments.
- The permit decision was made following a public hearing and a several-month open public comment period.
This story also appeared in BridgeDetroit.
The increased emissions result from odor-control technology, a regenerative thermal oxidizer, which Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) required Stellantis to install to keep paint odors down.
The permit comes amid a resolution of a years-long civil rights fight over air pollution at the plant between Stellantis, Detroit residents, and the city, state, and federal governments.
“Stellantis is pleased to have finalized the permitting process to continue operating the second regenerative thermal oxidizer installed to help control odors from the Detroit Assembly Complex – Mack plant,” said Stellantis spokesperson Jodi Tinson, noting that the plant has some of the lowest PM 2.5 limits in the industry.
Tinson added that despite the increase in pollution emissions, the local area will still meet federal air quality standards for fine particulate matter (PM 2.5).
However, with a new federal law in place for particulate matter, EGLE says it’s likely that Detroit and areas around it will soon fall out of compliance.
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Stellantis: ‘There was never a problem with the air’
Stellantis says new pollution control technology installed to address odors at its Mack plant is working as designed, and the facility has never posted a health risk – despite more than a hundred complaints and eight air quality violations.
Community speaks against Stellantis permit request to increase emissions
About 50 people attended the meeting, where several asked EGLE staff why they’d consider the Stellantis request to increase emissions of particulate matter.
PM 2.5 are particles 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair and can travel deep into the lungs and bloodstream, causing worsened asthma and other respiratory issues. In part due to increased PM 2.5 pollution, Wayne County got an “F” in the American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air Report this year.
“If [Stellantis] are the cream of the crop, the industry is in bad shape,” said Robert Shobe, a resident whose home is directly adjacent to the factory. “You’re still putting some very dangerous pollutants in the air,” he said. “There was no appetite to even try and lower emissions in any other areas of the plant.”
Stellantis request granted
Stellantis’s request to increase emissions was made to incorporate requirements outlined in a legal consent order made with EGLE to address the company’s air quality violations. Stellantis proposed installing a pollution control device called a regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) that creates its own pollution. The request was granted Nov. 8, although Stellantis has been operating the device since June 2023, in a deviation from standard state protocol.
The permit decision was made following a September public hearing and a several-month open public comment period. Approximately 66 people attended the public hearing, which included both in-person and virtual options, and 64 written and oral comments were submitted throughout the comment period and at the hearing, according to EGLE.
Many comments, including one made in person by State Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, asked EGLE to deny the company’s request to increase emissions due to poor air quality in the area, Stellantis’ past violations, and ongoing odor issues. Just a few days after the hearing, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America named Detroit the third worst city to live in with asthma.
Only two technical tweaks were made to the permit based on public comment.
“The AQD does not have the regulatory authority to make every change to the permit suggested during the public comment period,” EGLE said in a press release about the permit approval.
Shobe said everyone already knew EGLE was going to approve the permit, noting the RTO had already been installed.
“We knew it was going to be pushed through,” he said. “They were already using [the RTO] anyway. “It’s truly incredible how the policies at EGLE allow them to stand up behind some imaginary or model numbers as opposed to doing what’s best for the community, the people that live around here,” he said
Bashi said EGLE can deny a permit based on past violations or cumulative impact or community concerns, but chooses not to.
“You think the job is to protect the environment? It’s a pollution permitting agency,” he said. “They grant permits that allow corporations to pollute. That’s their role and they like giving those permits. It’s more of an economic development agency than it is protecting the health of residents.”
EGLE spokesperson Josef Greenberg said a company’s compliance record is always taken into account when issuing an air permit, and noncompliance is addressed through enforcement measures like fines and administrative consent orders.
“EGLE’s primary mission is to protect public health and the environment by regulating industrial sources of air pollution,” Greenberg said in a statement. “We do this through the application of health-based air quality rules and regulations. We carefully consider how the rules apply when developing an air permit to ensure the permit has restrictions to protect the public.”
For city leaders and residents, the new plant, which promised to create nearly 5,000 new jobs for Detroiters, brought optimism, amid a 38% decline of manufacturing jobs in recent years.
Others were more skeptical, given the backdrop of decades of failed promises from Stellantis, formerly Chrysler, and the nearly $400 million in state and city tax incentives Stellantis used to open the facility.
Since the plant opened, the jobs have begun to disappear.
At the end of October, Stellantis paused production at the Detroit Assembly Complex and laid off 102 people indefinitely, and it said more layoffs were expected. Last week, the company cut 400 jobs at a nearby parts warehouse on Freud. Tinson said the corporation is no longer providing job figures online.
Civil rights case
In 2021, Stellantis began operating Detroit’s first new automotive plant in three decades, promising 5,000 new jobs for Detroiters. To build the factory and comply with federal air quality laws, Stellantis proposed cutting emissions in a majority-white neighborhood and increasing them in a majority-black neighborhood on Detroit’s east side, which EGLE approved.
In Nov. 2021, the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center filed a civil rights complaint through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)against EGLE, alleging that the permit was discriminatory. The complaint sought buyouts for residents living near the factory who have expressed ongoing concerns about strong odors and poor air quality. Since the plant opened, the state has issued eight air quality violations to Stellantis.
The complaint was resolved on Sept. 9, requiring the state to hold several discussions about zoning and air permitting, and environmentally beneficial project ideas for Detroit. The agreement did not include an admission of wrongdoing or any actions beyond holding conversations and providing summaries of the conversations to the EPA.
Great Lakes Environmental Law Center attorney Andrew Bashi, who represented community members in the complaint, called the resolution “pathetic,” saying it didn’t address the civil rights complaints. Residents say they are disappointed the EPA didn’t use its power to protect residents before the Trump administration comes to power in January.
Shobe said the resolution doesn’t help the community.
“The resolution didn’t address the civil rights violation at all,” he said. “It’s just more of the same – you’re going to tell me you’re going to invest money into making someone aware of how you’re poisoning them?”
Most of the facility’s violations are for odors, which can cause headaches and nausea and indicate the presence of potentially harmful chemicals in the air. One violation was issued for emitting more volatile organic compounds (VOCs) – a pollutant released when paint is applied to vehicles – than permitted. VOCs have been linked to eye, nose and throat irritation and worsened asthma. In addition, emerging research links the pollutants with adverse birth outcomes.
The resolution came after a two-year process involving an on-site investigation by EPA officials, a community tour, and several meetings between EGLE, the EPA, community members, and a professional mediator.
Shobe said the resolution calls into question the actual function of the state and federal environmental agencies
“They’re (EPA and EGLE) the ones charged with making certain an environment is safe for a community,” said Shobe. “They’ve seen enough to know things over here aren’t being done properly.”
If a complaint is found to be valid, the EPA can withhold funding from the state agency. Historically, only 10% of civil rights complaints filed with the EPA are investigated, and only a few times in history has the EPA issued a finding of noncompliance with the civil rights law.
Bashi said he thought the EPA was treating this case differently and was confident the officials understood how the plant impacted residents’ everyday lives.
“They could smell the paint; they got to see and experience it for themselves,” he said.
Instead, Bashi said the multi-year process was a complete waste of time, leaving him disappointed and livid.
“Our clients had no say in the end,” said Bashi. “The community was cut out of the process. The EPA didn’t do a great job representing the community and sticking up for their needs. It really speaks to a bigger issue with how the government treats the real day-to-day issues that people face, particularly poorer and communities of color.”
In a statement to BridgeDetroit, an EPA spokesperson said that it heard the concerns and thus was ensuring Stellantis plants trees.
“EPA recognizes the concerns of residents living in the neighborhoods adjacent to the Stellantis Complex, including nuisance odors, quality of life issues, and cumulative health impacts. This Agreement takes steps to address these issues and builds on ongoing work led by EPA Region 5 to ensure that Stellantis follows through with an agreement to plant a robust green buffer of trees around its Complex perimeter and additional trees on Beniteau and Lillibridge streets.”
Credit: Courtesy of Detroit People’s Platform
Fighting for the neighborhood
Detroit People’s Platform organizer Eden Bloom has been fighting for neighbors around Stellantis since the plant was first built. Bloom said it feels like the incoming Trump administration has taken away any chance to shift the paradigm with EGLE to prioritize communities.
“I am extremely upset that this administration’s EPA didn’t push harder when they had the balls,” Bloom said. “It’s a real sad situation, an example of just pissing away power.”
Bloom said it’s a triple insult.
“One of the big pieces that pushed this public funding of this private project into being was the promise of jobs for Detroiters. It’s just a double, triple minus situation with them over polluting, using public funding, and canning people they were supposed to hire to improve economic standing.”
Earlier this week, Trump tapped former New York congressman Lee Zeldin to run the EPA office, who he said would “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses.”
The EPA said in a statement that it’s focused on finalizing durable policies to protect communities like the one surrounding Stellantis from pollution that can withstand legal changes.
“EPA is moving urgently, with a commitment to advancing environmental justice, to ensure every person in this country has clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and the chance to lead a healthy, fulfilling life,” the statement said.
Bloom said the whole thing now “has a real sense of permanence.”