An engineering firm suggested an 85-foot buffer between the river and bulk storage piles atop contaminated land. Hercules Concrete, a company owned by the billionaire Moroun family, may be tempting fate by storing large piles of aggregate close to the Detroit River near the Ambassador Bridge. Based on an analysis done for site owner Crown […]
Posted inUncategorized
From the Headlines
Big $ for Belle Isle: With $4.6 million for the new Piet Oudolf perennial garden, $2.5 million for the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservancy, and $4.9 million for the Dossin Great Lakes Museum, Detroit’s Belle Isle State Park is seeing some serious investment these days. “Belle Isle has more projects going on than any other state park in […]
Posted inGuides
Ask Planet Detroit: What is being done about the water quality of Rouge River?
Dear Planet Detroit, What is being done about the water quality of Rouge River? A River Person Dear River Person, Well, a lot! The Rouge River has come a long way since infamously catching fire in 1969 after a worker dropped a torch into the river, which ignited waste oil and other contaminants deposited by […]
Posted inAccountability
Eye on enforcement: Dearborn’s fugitive dust ordinance
This is an occasional series in which Planet Detroit examines how environmental ordinances are enforced in Metro Detroit. After 18 months of deliberation, the City of Dearborn passed a first-of-its-kind local ordinance to regulate fugitive dust in the city this past summer. Residents who sought protection against dust reported it caused haze, decreased visibility, and […]
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From the Headlines
Community benefits? The State Fairgrounds Development Coalition, a grassroots neighborhood group, continues to raise concerns about the new Amazon distribution center being built on the former Michigan Fairgrounds property. Community members are especially worried about how trucks from the center could impact air quality, although Amazon said it’s committed to reaching “net-zero carbon” by 2040 and has already […]
Posted inCommunity
Detroiters’ environmental leaders on their must-reads
Here’s a list of books on water, plants, waste, soil, and justice recommended by the city’s local advocates for the environment. It’s January 2021 and if you’re like us, reading more was one of your New Year’s resolutions. We asked local environmental experts what their top must-reads are. They gave us a mix of books […]
Posted inSolutions
20 minutes from the train station, Ford Motor has embarked on a radical green plan for its Dearborn design campus. Almost no one has noticed.
A campus view looking north shows the partially expanded berm running along Elmdale Street, left, and two parking lots that workers repaved in 2020. A Ford Land spokesperson said the lots are temporary. Ford world headquarters is in the distance at the upper right. Photo/Millard Berry I’m standing at the corner of Military and Rotunda […]
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From the Headlines
Charged: Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, his aide Rich Baird, former health department director Nick Lyon and several other city and state officials have been charged with 41 crimes related to the water crisis that exposed Flint residents to lead-tainted water and a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that killed 12 people. “Let me be clear, there are no velvet ropes in our criminal […]
Posted inAccountability
Detroit’s battle with climate change: Flooding, asthma, and infrastructure
While it may not see hurricanes or wildfires, climate change will present Detroiters with challenges. The solution? Building resilience with the basics. This past summer, Americans got a preview of the devastating effects of climate change. Wildfires burned through California, destroying 9,200 structures and over 4 million acres of forest. Yet another hurricane ripped across […]
Posted inUncategorized
From the Headlines
Democracy and the environment: The Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club made an unconventional choice for their “Environmentalist of the Year” by choosing Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. “…Democracy is essential to environmental protection. Without it, we really can’t have citizen engagement,” said David Holtz, a member of the Sierra Club’s executive committee. Holtz said that Benson and […]