The Color of Climate

Detroiters Accuse the State of Michigan of Environmental Racism

After decades of exposure to nauseating pollution, activists and residents filed a civil rights complaint against the state

This is The Color of Climate, a weekly column from OneZero exploring how climate change and other environmental issues uniquely impact the future of communities of color.

The U.S. Ecology hazardous waste facility is located in a predominantly Black area in Detroit. Residents say that fumes and odors from the facility give them nausea and cause appetite loss. Dust from the plant aggravates their asthma. They keep the windows of their homes closed to keep the air pollution out. They can’t enjoy fresh air.

The residents have been dealing with pollution from the facility for decades, but the coronavirus pandemic put a spotlight on the injustices they have faced. Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people have been among the hardest hit by the coronavirus — in part because their communities are disproportionately exposed to pollution. Before the pandemic, they were already exposed to dirty air, which caused respiratory diseases that increased their likelihood of experiencing severe Covid-19. They didn’t have access to clean water for proper sanitation, and they didn’t have adequate access to health care. As a result, Black people are dying from the virus at a rate over twice as high as that of white and Asian people.

“From our perspective, unless somebody stands up and puts a stop to this and protects these communities, it’s going to continue on indefinitely.”

In late July, a group of environmental justice activists and Detroit residents took action. They filed a civil rights complaint with the state of Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) with the aim of forcing the agency to better protect communities of color in the state from hazardous waste pollution.

“From our perspective, unless somebody stands up and puts a stop to this and protects these communities, it’s going to continue on indefinitely,” Nick Leonard, executive director of Great Lakes Environmental Law Center (GLELC), the environmental law firm behind the complaint, tells OneZero. “And so now is an important moment to sort of stand up and enough is enough.”

A civil rights complaint is often a step taken before a lawsuit. It’s a legal filing that alleges discrimination and asks an agency to investigate and rectify the alleged discrimination before the issue is taken to court.

The complaint claims that the state has shown “neglect and disregard for communities of color” by allowing hazardous waste facilities to be disproportionately located in those communities. In January, EGLE granted U.S. Ecology a license to expand its facility to almost nine times its current size. Leonard’s firm claims the decision was discriminatory on the basis of race and nationality and that the state’s process for deciding where and how hazardous waste facilities operate is also discriminatory.

Most of the waste treated at the U.S. Ecology facility isn’t created by the residents of the neighborhood. Nearly 99% of the waste sent to the facility in 2017 came from outside of Wayne County, where Detroit is located.

The siting of hazardous waste facilities near communities of color is an issue all over Michigan. Even though people of color make up 25% of the state’s population, they make up 65% of the population that lives within three miles of one of the state’s eight hazardous waste facilities, according to Leonard’s firm.

Detroit is the Blackest large city in the United States and was also the city in Michigan that was hardest hit by the pandemic. As of August 4, Detroiters made up nearly 14% of the state’s coronavirus case count and nearly 23% of the state’s death toll, despite representing only about 6.7% of the state’s population overall. It’s been well documented that the disproportionate exposure to environmental harms that people of color face puts them at greater risk for contracting and experiencing severe outcomes of the disease.

“Covid was sort of a perfect storm of injustice in Detroit where the compounding lack of access to clean water, good food, adequate health care, and access to transit to get tested put us all on alert for injustices that are happening,” Michelle Martinez, the coordinator of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, one of the groups working with the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center on the civil rights complaint, tells OneZero. “We really can’t sit on our tarsal and wait for the administration in Michigan to see EJ issues. It must be integrated as a top priority.”

The complaint lays out clear demands: EGLE must perform an internal investigation to determine whether it has committed unlawful discrimination, amend the license it granted to U.S. Ecology to protect residents of the area, and revise its hazardous waste management plan. It also calls for EGLE to support Michigan residents with limited English proficiency by providing translation and interpretation services so they can understand how EGLE’s decisions impact them.

EGLE’s policies allow for an informal resolution process between the agency and the complainants to take place, which Leonard says he hopes will happen. Jill Greenberg, a spokesperson for EGLE, told the Detroit News that the department “takes all allegations of discrimination seriously” and will decide whether to launch a formal investigation by August 10. If it decides to do so, it’s required to complete its investigation and report findings within 180 days.

“We’re hoping they take it seriously,” Leonard says. “EGLE under Governor Whitmer has made environmental justice a priority and they’ve taken steps to address environmental injustice. But now it’s time for action and we’re hoping that this is going to spur them to that action.”