Detroit residents win landmark settlement over discriminatory licensing of hazardous waste facilities

A settlement has been reached in a civil rights complaint filed by community members and environmental justice advocates against the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) over its disproportionate licensing of hazardous waste sites in predominantly lower-income Black and Brown communities.

After years of sustained community pressure, a settlement was reached that will require EGLE to utilize the Environmental Protection Agency’s “EJ Screen” tool and consider environmental justice considerations in its hazardous waste facility licensing decisions.

Key elements of the settlement include:

• Procedures to ensure that EGLE proactively identifies limited English proficient populations and provides such communities with robust translation and interpretation services

• Commits EGLE to work with the local community to determine the best methods for ensuring meaningful public participation in the licensing process

• Requires an environmental justice analysis and cumulative impact review prior to the issuance or renewal of a hazardous waste facility license

• Requires EGLE to refuse to issue a license for a hazardous waste facility if it will have an unlawful impact on the environment or human health

• Requires EGLE, in partnership with the community, to install three purple air monitors in the area around US Ecology North and make all data publicly available

• Directs EPA and EGLE to develop strategies to improve the health of communities in Northeast Detroit in partnership with local residents and community organizations.

• US Ecology North Hazardous Waste Treatment Facility Expansion Approved.

Sixty-five percent of Michiganders who live less than three miles from a commercial hazardous waste site are people of color, even though they make up only 25 percent of Michigan’s total population.

These types of facilities expose communities living in settlements to the risk of leakage or release of hazardous waste, chemical reactions associated with improper storage or treatment of hazardous waste, discharge of excessive quantities of hazardous substances into the sewage system, impacts on air quality due to fugitive and exhaust gas emissions, emissions from diesel trucks transporting hazardous waste to and from the facility, and various noxious odours.

“For too long, the cumulative health effects of pollution have been evident in our bodies,” said local resident Pastor Sharon Buttry. “Just today, my husband was scheduled for another four months of chemotherapy. We have literally sacrificed our lives for the privilege of industry to pollute. The most vulnerable Michiganders living near hazardous waste facilities are disproportionately people of color and low-income. With this civil rights complaint, we have proven that we will not be silenced and that our lives matter.”

“For decades, communities of color in Michigan have been the dumping ground for hazardous waste from across the country,” said Nick Leonard, executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. “This settlement commits Michigan to ending this legacy of environmental racism by centering communities in the hazardous waste licensing process using Michigan’s Environmental Justice Screening Tool to conduct environmental justice and cumulative impact analyses. We look forward to working with Michigan and communities across the state to ensure these new commitments are implemented with urgency and work effectively to create the environmentally just future we all deserve.”