Ricky Junquera - ricky.junquera@sierraclub.org - (617) 599-7048
Dearborn, MI -- Tonight, hundreds attend the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) hearing at Salina Elementary School on Dearborn Industrial Generation’s (DIG) request for a new permit to increase the capacity at its fracked gas plant by adding another gas-burning unit. The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, NAACP, impacted residents from the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, Sierra Club, and State Representative Abdullah Hammoud held a press conference ahead of the hearing highlighting points against the increase.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has estimated that the following emissions will result from this project:
913 tons of carbon monoxide per year
416 tons of nitrogen oxides per year
80 tons of particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers
per year (PM2.5)34 tons of sulfur dioxide per year
167 tons of volatile organic compounds per year
“Today, Dearborn Industrial Generation asks us to increase their pollution. Within three miles of this proposed pollution increase, seventy percent of the residents are low-income and fifty-four percent identify as a minority population,” said Andrew Sarpolis, organizer for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Michigan. “The MDEQ should deny any request to increase pollution in an area already so heavily burdened by pollution.”
Residents are concerned about the gas plant’s cumulative impacts on some of the most polluted neighborhoods in Michigan. There are sensitive areas containing vulnerable groups near DIG, including an elementary school which is seven hundred feet from the site. The Dearborn community and surrounding areas are already failing to meet national sulfur dioxide (SO2) standards, and this plan risks putting the area out of attainment for ground-level ozone (smog) as well. It also proposes a concerning increase in asthma-triggering particulate matter, something which monitoring data shows is already close to unsafe levels.
“Dearborn Industrial Generation has failed to provide information and analyses to the MDEQ that is required either by federal law or state law to ensure that the proposed permits will not violate a federal or state air quality standard,” said Nicholas Leonard, Staff Attorney with The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center.
“MDEQ has the ability to take cumulative impact into consideration,” said Theresa Landrum, community member of neighboring 48217. “MDEQ knows this will increase carbon monoxide levels, sulfur dioxide levels that are already pushing the area into nonattainment of national air standards, and particulate matter levels that are a carcinogenic and aggravate asthma. I urge the MDEQ to do the environmental justice analysis that is sorely needed.”
“60 percent of my kids have asthma, and the community is realistic of the situation. All we are asking for is not to increase the already existing pollution emissions,” siad Victor Jimenez, Community Organizer for Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.