Clean Air:
Local Residents Join Struggle For Environmental Justice
In early 2019, thirteen local residents joined the Clean Air Council for a one-year fellowship, facilitated by the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition (MEJC), to learn about environmental racism, pollution, and its impacts on communities in and around Detroit. They met monthly in Southwest Detroit, spending their first months in cohort learning about toxic contamination, and eventually collaborated to take action for environmental justice.
Meet some of the fellows below as they share in the own words a bit about who they are, why they are involved, and how they feel the work and approach of the Clean Air Council can make a difference.
“I actually didn’t know how bad it was until I took a class about it which is definitely one of the reasons why a lot of residents don’t know about these health issues going on… everyone’s working, everybody has stuff to do. So it kind of just doesn’t come into your mind.”
Peer-To-Peer Model
The fellowship operates on the belief that environmental injustice grows in the absence of informed and engaged community, and in lax regulatory systems. And so it is the fellows work to learn as much as they can—so that they, themselves, can share as much as they can with other residents impacted by environmental justices. Informed and engaged communities are better equipped to advocate for and get their needs met.
“We’re kind of intimidated by doctors and lawyers… but if it comes from the community they can say, ‘Oh, I’m listening to her, you know, because she’s here, she’s living this.”
The fellows spent the year meeting, learning, and strategizing with one another as they were simultaneously raising awareness by educating neighbors and partners about the impacts of poor air quality and environmental injustice’s impact on quality of life.
The impact of environmental injustices on residents spans ages, ethnicities, and geographies across Metro Detroit.
Detroiters and residents of neighboring communities are connected through disparate impact whether or not they are united in struggle. Education and awareness can unite communities in demanding better oversight and enforcement of current regulations while advocating for improved policies that increases health and opportunity in communities.
“You already knew you spent some time outside because when you came back in the house, you had that outside smell. And it was just due to the poor air quality.”
Legacy Contamination
Pollution and legacy contamination is a part of daily life in Detroit. The result is the degradation of local residents’ quality of life.
Declining health, suppressed home values, and the threat of acute exposure and emergency evacuations are the symptoms of industrial pollution in areas like Southwest Detroit.
“I do see soot on top of my car... oh well, it came out the sky. Am I breathing that? Maybe I am. But does it hurt me? Probably not. I found out how devastating the pollution in the air is... very, very devastating to us.”
Asthma is the number one reason for school absenteeism within the City of Detroit. Pollution does not give students a fair chance in Detroit. Other health impacts include heart disease, stroke, cancer and early mortality.
Education, Policy Change, and Enforcement
Advocating for education, policy change, and increased enforcement across the historically segregated boundaries of Detroit is central to the fellows’ work.
Without progressive change profits will continue to be prioritized over the protection of the health of Black, Latinx, Middle Eastern, and Native communities in Michigan who bear the brunt of environmental pollution.
“[We’re] Ignored over here on the East Side… We share many of the same concerns as Southwest. But for the almost 20 years I’ve been over here no one has paid any attention to the air quality that’s coming out of the Chrysler Plant.”
Limitations of the Clean Air Act
These conditions and events highlight limitations of the Clean Air Act, which was first passed in 1963, and updated in 1970 at which time the EPA was created and tasked primarily with carrying out and enforcing its mandates. The Clean Air Act, even with more recent updates, is not protecting vulnerable residents from the cumulative impact of industries over time.
They also highlight the need for increased communication and education toward an informed and engaged community that understands what is happening regarding their environment, what risks there are as a result, and what they can do about it to preserve their health and safety even when there is not an emergency.
“There was a ton of pushback from Marathon... who just did not want to be regulated, and spreading fear about ‘we’re going to lose jobs’... none of that has happened yet, unsurprisingly.”
“Recently when I went to the doctor, I have light symptoms of asthma already. So I’m trying to fix that. But I can’t fix that while I’m still here living in this city. I love this city. I want to live here.”
Resident-Led Advocacy Results In Civil Rights Complaint Filing
Over the course of the year the cohort supported Southwest Detroit neighborhoods and surrounding communities through a series of actions including a Civil Rights Complaint, filed in partnership with University of Detroit Mercy, against the Marathon Oil Refinery on Oakwood in Detroit.
The complaint focused on illegal emissions like hydrogen sulfide and mercaptan released in the air as a result of the plant malfunction during the 2019 Polar Vortex.
On February 2, 2019 residents of Southwest Detroit and Dearborn’s neighboring South End were awakened at 3:00am by a strong odor with some reporting dizziness and even vomiting. A number of residents self-evacuated on instinct, without any notice from the company or local municipalities. For some time residents did not receive notice from the company, nor government agencies responsible for alerting residents.
