An agreement 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) regarding the department’s disproportionate licensing of hazardous waste facilities in predominantly black and brown, lower-income communities.
After years of sustained community pressure, a settlement came about which will require EGLE to use the EPA’s “EJ Screen” tool and integrate environmental justice concerns into decision making when licensing hazardous waste facilities.
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The settlement agreement highlights include:
- Procedures to ensure EGLE proactively identifies limited English proficient populations and provides such communities with robust translation and interpretation services
- Commits EGLE to engaging with the local community to determine the best methods for providing meaningful public involvement in the licensing process
- Requires a Environmental Justice analysis and cumulative impact review for before issuing or renewing a license to a hazardous waste facility
- Requires that EGLE deny a license for a hazardous waste facility if it will cause unlawful impacts to the environment or human health
- Requires EGLE, in collaboration with the community, to install three Purple air monitors in the area around US Ecology North and make all data publicly available
- Commits EPA and EGLE to developing community health improvement strategies in Northeast Detroit in partnership with local residents and community organizations.
- Approval of an expansion of the U.S. Ecology North hazardous waste facility.
Sixty-five percent of the Michigan residents who live within three miles of a commercial hazardous waste facility are people of color, despite being only 25 percent of Michigan’s total population.
These facilities put fence-line communities at risk of spill or release of hazardous wastes, chemical reactions associated with the improper storage or treatment of hazardous wastes, discharge of excessive levels of hazardous substances into the sewer system, air quality impacts due to fugitive and stack emissions, emissions from diesel trucks carrying shipments of hazardous waste to and from the facility and various harmful odors.
“For too long the cumulative health impacts associated with pollution have been manifest in our bodies,” said local resident Rev. Sharon Buttry. “Just today my husband was scheduled for four more months of chemotherapy. We have literally sacrificed our lives for the privilege of industry to pollute. Michigan’s most vulnerable residents living near hazardous waste facilities are disproportionately people of color and low wealth. With this Civil Rights complaint case we have proven that we won’t be silenced and our lives matter.”
“For decades, Michigan’s communities of color have been the dumping ground for hazardous waste from across the country,” said Nick Leonard, Executive Director, Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. “This settlement agreement commits Michigan to putting an end to this legacy of environmental racism by centering the community in the hazardous waste licensing process through the use of 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 diligently implemented and work effectively to create the environmentally just future we all deserve.”