Part Two: Detroit residents complain of health effects of breathing in toxins
Natasha Dado wrote this series for The Arab American News as a fellow in the 2014 National Health Journalism Fellowship, a program of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. This story was also published by New American Media. Read the other parts of this series here:
Part One: Environmental groups seek to overturn controversial emissions permit
Part Three: Are industrial sources near schools jeopardizing students' health?
An air pollution violation that occurred at Severstal's former factory in Dearborn, Mich. in August. Residents living nearby complained about breathing and smelling sulfuric acid after the explosion.
MICHIGAN — Sulfur dioxide is harmful to human health. Short-term exposure to the toxic gas causes narrowing of airways and difficultly breathing, increased asthma symptoms, and more frequent emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
The Environmental Protection Agency has designated a sizable portion of Wayne County as failing to meet federal air quality standards for (SO2) sulfur dioxide. Air pollution violations and sulfur dioxide emissions are major environmental justice issues in Wayne County.
DTE Energy is responsible for 85 percent of all sulfur dioxide emissions in Wayne County, according to data from the Michigan Air Emissions Reporting System (MAERS).
The main sources for sulfur dioxide emissions are DTE’s River Rouge and Trenton Channel plants and its EES Coke LLC subsidiary at U.S. Steel. Two of DTE's power plants alone represent more than 80 percent of SO2 emissions according to sorted 2010 data from MAERS.
The Dearborn plant of former steel company Severstal (now owned by AK Steel); GM Hamtramck; Carmeuese Lime, Detroit Wastewater and Marathon, among others, were also listed as sulfur dioxide emitters.
Brad Wurfel, the communications director for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), said the agency has drafted a new regulation applicable to U.S. Steel containing tighter sulfur dioxide emission limits than currently exist for their affected operations. Similarly, DTE has applied to the MDEQ for permit revisions for the two power plants which incorporate tighter sulfur dioxide limits than are currently required; and Carmeuse Lime will be submitting a permit request shortly to install a new smokestack to address its sulfur dioxide impact problem in the area. The permits and rule will be included in the sulfur dioxide State Implementation Plan and submitted to EPA in 2015, with opportunities for public comment prior to completion of the plan.
Wurfel said sulfur dioxide emissions in Wayne County have been decreasing and will continue to do so.
In 2010, the EPA set a new 1-Hour National Ambient Air Quality Standard for sulfur dioxide. The 1-hour standard is 75 parts per billion, averaged over three years. In 2013, the EPA designated the new 1-Hour Sulfur Dioxide Nonattainment Area in a portion of Wayne County.
Within 18 months from the EPA designation, Michigan must submit to EPA a plan for the area to meet the 1-Hour Sulfur Dioxide Standard. This area must meet the standard within five years.
The plan, called the State Implementation Plan For Sulfur Dioxide, must include legally enforceable measures necessary to bring the area into attainment. The State Implementation Plan must be submitted to EPA in April.
“If we are going to think strategically right now, we need to reduce the SO2,” said Rhonda Anderson, the senior organizing representative of the Sierra Club Detroit Chapter, while addressing environmental issues in parts of Wayne County.
“They have to do the right thing that would have the greatest effect for the whole area, and that would really require them to invest a lot of money in these plants. Sometimes that is not the bottom line for them.”
DTE spokeswoman Randi Berris told TAAN by email that all DTE Energy power plants are in full compliance with current regulations.
She said the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for SO2 was revised as required under the Clean Air Act, creating the non-attainment area in Wayne County. Berris added that DTE Energy is working with the MDEQ to develop a State Implementation Plan to address the SO2 non-attainment area in Wayne County.
In a statement sent to TAAN by email Berris said:
“As the result of new federal emissions rules scheduled to take effect beginning in 2015, sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions— along with a number of other emissions— will be significantly reduced at all power plants. Recent data from monitors in the area have shown compliance with the NAAQS. It is extremely important that the state evaluate the SO2 sources that currently contribute to the non-attainment and pursue reduction options that will bring the area into attainment. The new one-hour SO2 standard will require further SO2 reductions at several of our facilities that may go beyond the reductions required by other regulations such as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard and the Cross State Air Pollution Rule that take effect starting in 2015. Several options for further reductions from our River Rouge and Trenton Channel Power Plants are under consideration.”
Possible control methods for SO2 emissions
“There are controls,” said Teresa McHugh, the field-organizing manager for the Sierra Club, while discussing what DTE could do to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.
The Sierra Club has offered suggestions as to what DTE can do to address the issue, including installing best performance pollution controls or by phasing out the use of coal, which is the source of these dangerous pollutants.
According to a 2014 Public Policy Poll, more than three in five DTE customers say they support replacing the state’s coal burning power plants with renewable energy sources. The same majority of DTE customers also say they are concerned about asthma attacks and other potential health problems from soot, smog and other pollution from coal-burning power plants, according to the poll.
“Corporations need to be accountable for the things that they do to the community; it is an unfair burden that the community has had to bear with all of the extreme amount of pollution in this area,” said Angela Reyez, the executive director of the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation.
The Environmental Protection Agency has previously designated areas in and around Severstal and in Wayne County as non-attainment for PM 2.5 (fine particulate matter). EPA lifted this non-attainment designation on August 29, 2013.
“Some research suggests that because the particulate matter of PM 2.5 is so tiny, it not only gets in your lungs it gets in your bloodstream,” Reyez said. “So it has always been causing or been showing to cause increases in high blood pressure, stokes and other cardiovascular diseases. Like within two days after there is a spike in the PM 2.5 in the air, there is a spike in cardiovascular incidents, because it gets into the bloodstream.”
A 2006 revised emissions permit issued by the MDEQ to Severstal this year that transfered over to AK Steel could reportedly increase toxic pollutants, and one of them is PM 10.
AK Steel responds to concerns about pollution increases under new permit
Residents living near a factory in the Southend of Dearborn have complained about breathing in and smelling sulfuric acid after an explosion occurred at the former Severstal factory this August.
The large cloud of smoke could be seen from residents’ homes and some said the acid-like smell from the explosion even reached the inside of their homes.
Severstal was notorious for air pollution violations with more than 1,000 alleged by the MDEQ and EPA in the past four years.
Barry Racey, the director of government and public relations for AK Steel, responded to concerns about pollution increases from Severstal’s plant and the incident that occurred in August. Many residents are concerned such pollution events could continue or even worsen after the plant’s sale.
Racey said the explosion in August was associated with an operating practice in handling molten metal called "beaching" which is not a standard practice at AK Steel. The beaching practice involves pouring molten metal from the blast furnace onto the ground due to operational disruptions downstream.
“AK Steel will operate the facility more efficiently than has been done in past years and therefore does not intend to "beach" hot metal at Dearborn Works,” he said, referring to the former Severstal plant. AK Steel has not experienced a beaching event since acquiring the facility last September.
Regarding reducing sulfur dioxide emissions, AK Steel said the Detroit metropolitan area, like many areas across the United States, is in non-attainment with the most recent sulfur dioxide national ambient air quality standards. Wurfel said some large companies located in the nonattainment area— such as Marathon and AK Steel— emit sulfur dioxide, but the computer modeling indicates it is not in quantities sufficient to cause or contribute to levels of sulfur dioxide that violate the new 1-hour standard. For that reason, they are not included in the State Implementation Plan.
In regards to environmental matters, Racey said AK Steel is strongly committed to operating Dearborn Works in an environmentally responsible manner.
“…The company is working to ensure that the Dearborn facility’s operations comply with all applicable environmental laws, regulations and permits,” he said. “Since acquiring Dearborn Works nearly three months ago, implementation of AK Steel's Environmental Management System at the facility is well underway,” Barry added.
Need to examine cumulative impact of toxins
Rashida Tlaib, an outgoing state representative and environmental activist whose district covers southwest Detroit, said three areas she gets the most complaints about are city services, unemployment and pollution.
Tlaib said she has introduced about 30 pieces of legislation to address pollution related issues. One of the bills included looking at the impact of all the toxins collectively as opposed to examining one particular source. She also said passing such legislation is difficult because a lot of law makers think it could hurt job creation.
“What is really critical to understand is when people start talking about public health and regulating these industries they think it is a job killer thing, you hear the UAW telling progressive organizations to back off because this could hurt job creation,” Tlaib said, speaking to TAAN a week after she received a complaint about a spill at the Detroit Marathon Oil Refinery. “So there is confusion, I think, with my colleagues in Lansing who don’t want to take up these bills that I introduced because they think this is a hindrance on the business. Absolutely we want businesses to grow, but I don’t think they understand that jobs can’t fix cancer nor can they fix asthma or any of these issues and we end up paying the cost of medical care. We end up paying the cost of human suffering.”
Sulfur dioxide is one of the many pollutants companies regularly report to the MDEQ. Additional pollutants reported to the MDEQ include volatile organic compounds, lead, PM10, PM 2.5, carbon monoxide among other toxins.
“One of the things they really need to be paying attention to is the cumulative effect of all those things together… so it is not just one it is all those things together and they are all contributing to the poor health,” Reyez said.
Anderson said getting the area of Wayne County back in compliance for sulfur dioxide would not fix all the pollution problems in the region, because there are so many other hazardous toxins impacting communities.
Southwest Detroit resident Vincent Martin said it is not uncommon to witness black smoke from Marathon’s facility. “Black smoke, that is an air pollution violation,” Martin said.
In 2014, the Clean Air Task Force examined the deaths and other adverse health effects and costs attributable to the fine particle air pollution resulting from power plant emissions in Wayne County.
Deaths, 70; heart attack 110; asthma attacks, 1,400, hospital admissions, 47; chronic bronchitis, 43; and asthma ER visits, 98.
“The regulations need to be enforced and they are not being made to abide by those,” Reyez said. “It is not even that it needs legislation, because there is already legislation on the books.
There are already federal standards that they are not being held to. So it is pushing those regularity organizations to hold them to the laws in the book. We have had public hearings we have had comments, but we are in a political environment right now where what businesses want businesses get.”
Concerns about tracking air monitoring data
One longtime major concern among residents and environmental groups for years has been tracking air-monitoring data.
Adel Mozip, a Dearborn resident and community activist, has tried to raise awareness on the need to install more air monitoring electric systems. He was part of a community advisory board that gave suggestions for an enforcement action against Severstal.
One suggestion was to measure emissions and display data for the public to see on a regular basis with the hiring of independent monitors. Anderson said there has been a lot of discussion around how many air pollution monitors actually exist.
“One of the situations there is always a lot of discussion around is how many air monitors are out here,” Anderson said. “That is one of the questions that a lot of the residents in these areas are asking about the monitors. Where are the monitors? Are the monitors situated in situations where it is most important?
“Environmental justice says that everyone should have equal access to clean air, clean water and a clean environment,” she added. “But it looks like a lot of these industries are placed in people of color communities, low income communities, where things like this can just happen.”
This story was originally published by The Arab American News.