Expand / Collapse search
☰

EPA to investigate state for permits to Detroit Stellantis plant after fume complaints

By and David Komer online producer
Published  March 14, 2022 11:40pm EDT
Environment
FOX 2 Detroit

EPA investigates state's permits of Stellantis plant on Detroit's east side

The EPA will look into if the state's department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy discriminated against a low-income, Black neighborhood when it gave the green light to Stellantis’ expanded assembly complex in Detroit.

DETROIT (FOX 2) - The Environmental Protection Agency will launch an investigation into claims state regulators discriminated against a Black neighborhood near the Stellantis Mack Assembly plant on Detroit's east side. Residents have complained about fumes coming from the plant and air quality.

"I don’t think it would be done anywhere else other than a low-income community full of Black people," said Robert Shobe. "I’m going to say it flat out."

Shobe told FOX 2 that in November 2021. And now four months later, the EPA will see if the state's department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy discriminated against a low-income, Black neighborhood when it gave the green light to Stellantis’ expanded assembly complex in Detroit.

"The granting of these permits to Stellantis, it was multiple, a string of them, that was done in a discriminatory way (in) that it disproportionately impacts communities of color," said Andrew Bashi.

Bashi is with the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center which filed the Civil Rights complaint on behalf of Shobe and four other Detroiters whose homes on the city’s east side back up to the plant.

"My understanding is that the paint facility sits right in there," Shobe said.

FOX 2: "And that’s what you're smelling every day?"

"From my understanding, that’s what we’re smelling everyday," he said.

They’ve long raised concerns about fumes and emissions from the assembly complex. Some of them EGLE has even verified and documented.

More coverage:

"You smell paint, it smells bleachy and my eyes were burning," said resident Lottie Carter.

Bashi says the complaint extends beyond the Stellantis plant and raises questions about EGLE’s permitting process on the whole. This east side Detroit neighborhood isn’t the only one with a major industrial complex next door.

"It’s happening in three or four places in Detroit," Shobe said. "You’ve got it in Flint, you’ve got it in Benton Harbor. All over the state, we’re dealing with the same thing."

"Michigan is one of the worst states when it comes to the disproportionate placement of industrial facilities in communities of color-elevated levels of asthma in these communities, elevated health," Bashi said. "A bunch of different health risks including heart disease and things like that, and the state just continues to allow these facilities to be built in those communities."

EGLE released a statement saying:

"Michigan EGLE looks forward to EPA’s review of Michigan permitting decisions and processes to ensure that the state is doing everything within its authority to protect vulnerable communities, and to receive guidance from EPA in doing so most effectively."

Stellantis declined to comment on this move by the EPA. In about two weeks we should have an idea of when the EPA will wrap up its investigation and present its findings.