Overview:
- Michigan regulators are set to approve air quality permits for two facilities near southwest Detroit, using a little-known threshold to allow more pollution in an already heavily polluted area.
- The permits are for a coke screener at DTE Energy's EES Coke facility on Zug Island and a 'sweat furnace' to recover aluminum from scrap metal at Fritz Products in River Rouge.
- Both projects would increase fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) levels in an area where pollution already exceeds new federal standards.
- Environmental experts warn that any added pollution worsens the residents' high environmental burden.
Michigan regulators are poised to approve air quality permits for two facilities near southwest Detroit, which use a little-known air-quality threshold to allow for more pollution in a heavily polluted area.
The permits are for a coke screener at the DTE Energy’s EES Coke facility on Zug Island and a “sweat furnace” to recover aluminum from scrap metal at Fritz Products in River Rouge.
Both projects would increase levels of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) in an area where air monitors show pollution levels well above recently passed federal standards.
PM 2.5 is 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair and can lodge itself in lung cells and move into the bloodstream. It’s linked to cardiopulmonary illness, premature mortality and mental health issues.
These projects are considered “minor sources” by regulators, producing much smaller amounts of PM 2.5 than facilities like Marathon Petroleum or the rest of the EES Coke facility.
The permit applications for EES and Fritz rely on “Significant Impact Levels” (SILs) to show that their emissions will have a low impact on local air quality. SILs are set by environmental regulators as a way to measure whether a facility’s pollution levels are small enough that they won’t significantly affect the air people breathe.
However, advocates fear that granting these permits could open the door to more pollution permits in the area.
Environmental experts say any amount of pollution adds to residents’ already high environmental burden, making it more difficult for state regulators to bring the area back into attainment if it’s determined to be in violation of the National Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for PM 2.5, which is expected to happen in the next few years.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s guidance says permit holders can use the SIL thresholds to show a project won’t cause or contribute to a NAAQS air quality violation or damage air quality in areas that are in compliance.
Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy spokesperson Josef Greenberg said permits could still be issued using SILs for PM 2.5 even after the area around southwest Detroit receives a designation of “nonattainment” —meaning it has failed to meet federal air quality standards for PM2.5 pollution.
Andrew Bashi, staff attorney at the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, told Planet Detroit that this approach was like adding water to an overflowing glass.
“The size of the addition doesn’t matter, it still contributes to the overflow,” he said. “Any additional PM2.5 emissions in an area already exceeding standards is unacceptable under the Clean Air Act.”
Although environmental groups have challenged the use of SILs, Bashi said the specific question of how SILs might be properly applied in areas exceeding NAAQS, if at all, remains to be fully addressed by the courts.
“While courts haven’t specifically ruled on SIL use in areas exceeding NAAQS, the logic behind prohibiting automatic exemptions should apply with even greater force when we know an area already has unhealthy air quality,” he said.
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Study: DTE-owned EES Coke among worst polluters, causing premature deaths
A new report from Industrious Labs reveals that Michigan’s coal-based steel and coke facilities are causing an estimated 40-80 premature deaths and over 20,000 asthma cases annually, with the EES Coke facility in River Rouge, owned by DTE Energy, ranking among the state’s worst industrial polluters.
Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy appears ready to grant the permits. EGLE’s Air Quality Division recommended approval of both the EES permit and the Fritz Products permit, saying the projects would comply with its health-based screening levels.
Bashi said these approvals would contradict the agency’s rhetoric concerning environmental justice.
“All the talk of environmental justice…it’s just a facade,” he said.
Michigan’s MiEJScreen, an environmental justice screening tool, shows parts of Detroit, River Rouge, and Ecorse near the facilities in the 95th and 100th percentiles, indicating an extremely high level of pollution exposure and underlying risk.
The permits coincide with ongoing concerns about DTE’s EES Coke facility, which uses coal to produce coke for the steel industry. A recent study found that pollution from the facility contributes to 19-57 premature deaths annually and is linked to 15,387 cases of asthma symptoms. The facility has received numerous air quality violations and EES Coke and DTE are the subject of a lawsuit concerning the operation’s sulfur dioxide emissions.
Neither DTE nor Fritz Products replied to Planet Detroit’s requests for comment.
‘Significant Impact Level’ thresholds could lead to more permits in highly polluted areas
Although EES Coke and Fritz Products will be operating in an area where six state air monitoring sites registered annual PM 2.5 levels above the new federal standards in 2023, state regulators say the emissions from these facilities are low enough that they won’t cause a violation of federal air quality rules.
However, the Fritz sweat furnace, which is being moved from Detroit to River Rouge, comes very close to the daily SIL for PM2.5 pollution. It is expected to emit 1.187 micrograms per cubic meter of PM2.5 per day—just 0.013 below the SIL limit of 1.2.
SILs are set at stricter limits than federal air quality standards, according to EGLE spokesperson Greenberg, making them both harder to meet and more restrictive than NAAQS standards.
Yet, Bashi said it doesn’t matter how tight the standard is if the area is already too polluted, arguing this approach shouldn’t be used in areas exceeding air quality standards or close to doing so.
“When an area already exceeds a standard, any additional pollution necessarily contributes to that exceedance,” he said.
Bashi also expressed concern that southwest Detroit could see more permits that use SILs, allowing polluters to increase emissions in a piecemeal fashion even after the area is officially designated in non-attainment for particulate matter.
Greenberg said permits are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. A larger project may require more than one permit. But he said permit engineers work to ensure applicants aren’t attempting to avoid air quality regulations by breaking projects up into smaller ones.
Experts say EGLE has the authority to do more to protect public from air pollution
Environmental experts say the state has more power to rein in pollutants than it’s currently using, regardless of southwest Detroit’s attainment status for PM 2.5.
“The key point here is that EGLE does have the authority to go beyond the minimum levels in the Clean Air Act,” said Stuart Batterman, an environmental health researcher at the University of Michigan.
He pointed to Michigan’s Rule 901 that allows regulators to establish air quality standards that are more protective than existing baselines in order to protect public health or residents’ quality of life.
Greenberg said Rule 901 is only used to document odor and dust violation and to ensure equipment is operated in a way that isn’t harmful to the public. However, he said that it may be used, “in extreme cases when there is an imminent danger to public health.”
Batterman said EGLE would be technically complying with Clean Air Act standards if it issued the permits for EES Coke and Fritz Products, but, since the “writing is on the wall” that the area will be in non-attainment, these approvals wouldn’t be protective of public health.
“This area has the worst air quality in the state, so the need for accounting for multiple sources, multiple pollutants…is probably even greater in this case,” he said.
“What we should see in Southwest and in Detroit is lowering emissions, not increasing emissions.”
EGLE will hold an informational session and hearing on the EES Coke permit on Feb. 12, beginning at 5:30 p.m. The public will be able to submit testimony for the record at the hearing, which will take place at River Rouge City Hall, 10600 W. Jefferson Ave., River Rouge, MI.
Residents may also watch online at https://bit.ly/4eeglKA or call in to listen at 636-651-3142 and use conference code 374288.
A virtual public hearing will be held for the Fritz Products permit if requested in writing by February 13, 2025. This would be held on February 20, 2025, starting at 6:00 p.m. Written requests may be sent via email at EGLE-AQD-PTIPublicComments@Michigan.gov.
Comments may also be submitted on these permits via email at EGLE-aqd-ptipubliccomments@michigan.gov.