Overview:
- At a public hearing in River Rouge, residents urged Michigan regulators to deny a new air pollution permit for DTE Energy's EES Coke facility, pointing to the area's existing high pollution levels and health risks.
- Despite the state's power to set stricter air quality standards, EGLE representatives stated they must issue permits that meet state rules and cannot fully consider cumulative impacts or past violations.
- Residents called on EGLE to curb pollution and tackle local health problems, highlighting the severe effects of industrial pollution on their well-being.
At a hearing Wednesday night in River Rouge, Metro Detroiters demanded that regulators deny a new air pollution permit for a coke screener at DTE Energy’s EES Coke facility on Zug Island that they said would add to the area’s already high pollution burden.
The facility, which produces coke for the steel industry, would increase particulate matter emissions in southwest Detroit and Downriver, including fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), even though Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) just identified Wayne County as exceeding the new federal standard for PM 2.5.
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.
Despite hazardous winter weather, roughly 20 people showed up for the in-person meeting, along with 60 online participants. All opposed the permit, saying the state needs to do more to account for cumulative pollution impacts from multiple sources in an area where residents experience high rates of asthma, cancer and respiratory illness.
Several commenters said EGLE already has the power to do this, citing Rule 228, which experts have argued gives the state authority to establish air quality standards that are more protective than existing baselines and, in some cases, deny permits.
“This idea that we have to change the rules, it’s nonsense,” said Andrew Bashi, staff attorney at the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. “The question is: Are you willing to use the rules that you have in a way that benefits people over profit?”
Bashi also criticized the project’s use of “Significant Impact Levels” to show the facility would have a minimal effect on air quality. SILs are set by environmental regulators to measure whether a facility’s pollution levels are small enough that they won’t significantly affect the air people breathe.
“The significant impact level… that’s an emission that will be added on top of the current air quality,” Bashi said, adding that several nearby air monitors showed pollution above the old PM 2.5 standard in 2023. All of them were above the new, lower standard.
EGLE spokesperson Josef Greenberg previously told Planet Detroit that permits could still be issued using SILs for PM 2.5 even after the area around Wayne County is officially designated as “nonattainment” for PM 2.5, meaning it has failed to meet federal air quality standards for the pollutant.
On Wednesday night, EGLE representatives said they’re required to issue permits that comply with state rules and are largely unable to consider cumulative impacts or a company’s past violations.
“If a company…requests a permit to install, if that equipment that they’re requesting a permit for is able to show that it can comply with the air quality rules and regulations…then we’re legally obligated to issue the permit,” said EGLE inspector Katie Koster.
Jenifer Dixon, planning and policy coordinator for the EGLE Air Quality Division, said that the project’s proposed screener would improve EES Coke’s existing operations. The company will take over the screening process from a contractor on another part of Zug Island and move it into a building, which could better control pollution.
Coke is produced by heating coal in an oxygen-free environment. The screener separates coke by size so that it can be used to heat iron ore as part of the steel-making process.
Dixon said that the permit for the contractor currently screening coke will not be revoked and the company could potentially continue operating.
Residents ask for help reining in pollution
Detroit and River Rouge residents demanded EGLE do more to rein in DTE Energy-owned EES Coke, speaking of the toll the area’s industries have taken on their health. EES Coke currently contributes to 29-57 premature deaths and 15,387 cases of asthma a year and, along with Cleveland-Cliffs Dearborn Steel Works, generates an estimated $600 million to $1.2 billion in annual health costs, according to a study from Industrious Labs, a research and advocacy organization.
Malcolm Moulton, a former River Rouge City Councilmember, said the area’s history of industrial pollution had contributed to heart and lung problems and a high cancer incidence in his city and that national air quality standards weren’t enough to protect residents.
“You have a damn dying community here because of the atmosphere and we’re asking you for help,” he said.
Many speakers pointed to EES Coke’s history of air quality violations and said EGLE needs to consider the applicant’s past behavior when deciding on a permit.
The facility has recently received numerous air quality violations, and EES Coke and DTE are the subject of a lawsuit concerning the operation’s sulfur dioxide emissions. The Industrious Labs report found EES Coke was Michigan’s fifth-highest emitter of sulfur dioxide and fourth-highest for PM 2.5.
“We know that our community is sick,” said Theresa Landrum, president of the Original United Citizens of Southwest Detroit. Landrum added that EGLE’s permitting process failed to take racial disparities into account or the fact that the area around EES coke was in the 100th percentile for pollution exposure in the state.
“We don’t take breathing for granted,” Landrum said. “When our kids that have asthma go outside to play, we know it’s a risk…Simply opening our window to get fresh air, we could harm our children.”
Michigan’s permitting process is broken, advocates say
Many of those commenting on Wednesday night said Michigan’s air permitting process was fundamentally broken if it would allow another pollution source in such a highly polluted area.
EGLE states on its website that it does not directly base permit decisions on a community’s environmental justice burden. Instead, it uses tools like its MiEJScreen, an environmental justice screening tool that tracks pollution exposure and underlying risk, to target outreach activities.
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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.
EGLE poised to allow more pollution in southwest Detroit, where emissions already exceed federal levels
Advocates concerned that “significant impact levels” could be used to greenlight more projects in the already highly polluted area and say regulators have the tools to do more to protect resident health.
“The ongoing and systemic issue with EGLE’s permitting process is that they are not considering the cumulative impacts of pollution burden and pre-existing health conditions,” Bryan Smigielski, Michigan campaign organizer for the Sierra Club, told Planet Detroit.
On Wednesday, Smigielski asked EGLE representatives if the agency planned to use pre-existing health burdens and their authority under Rule 228 to enforce stricter pollution rules.
Dixon, with EGLE, replied that “we don’t really have quite the level of folks here to be able to answer that question.”
Maricela Gutierrez, senior campaign strategist with Industrious Labs, urged regulators to deny the permit, saying they needed to consider that the largely minority population of the area included many children and was already dealing with a substantial health burden.
“Approving this permit would worsen an already dire situation because pollution is cumulative,” she said. “Allowing more pollution is adding water to an already overflowing and spilling cup.”