Environmental groups have called on Michigan state regulators to adopt policies to put an end to a "long history of discrimination" over the placement of hazardous waste sites in poor communities of color, reports The Detroit News.
The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, in partnership with a Detroit law firm, has filed a civil rights complaint with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), on behalf of activist groups and residents in Detroit and Hamtramck, urging the department to "protect us from environmental racism," said Michelle Martinez, director of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition.
The July 27 filing alleges a "pattern of neglect and disregard" for communities of color when it comes to the licensing of commercial waste facilities and asks EGLE to change how it analyzes and approves such request to account for race and income.
Jill Greenberg, a spokeswoman for EGLE, said in a Monday email that the department has initiated a review process in regard to the complaint and will decide by Aug. 10 whether it warrants a formal investigation.
"We take all allegations of discrimination seriously, and this is evident in the steps EGLE has taken over the past 18 months to ensure that all Michigan residents — particularly those who have been historically left out of decision-making processes — have a voice in their government’s actions," Greenberg told The Detroit News.
The complaint comes after the controversial approval of a request from U.S. Ecology North, Belleville, Michigan, to expand its hazardous waste storage capacity in a Detroit neighborhood where 70 percent of residents are low-income and 80 percent are people of color, the group notes.
The Detroit North facility gained approval from the state in January to expand and continue its hazardous waste storage operations for the next decade. The civil rights complaint argues EGLE has failed to update its hazardous waste management plan to ensure a reasonable geographic distribution of the facilities and factor demographics into its licensing decisions.
Michigan currently houses eight hazardous waste facilities permitted to accept offsite waste. According to biennial reports filed with EGLE by each facility, in total Michigan commercial hazardous waste facilities received 316,548 tons of hazardous waste in 2017, the complaint noted.
Overall, about 70 percent of the waste was received from out-of-state, 25 percent was from sources within Michigan but outside the county where the commercial hazardous waste site is located, and just 5 percent was received from a source within the same county where the commercial hazardous waste facility is based.
EGLE has 14 days to determine if an investigation is warranted or if other actions can be taken to address the complaint. If it does undertake an investigation, EGLE is required to report findings within 180 days.