By Brian Allnutt, Planet Detroit
This article was republished with permission from Planet Detroit. Sign up for Planet Detroit’s weekly newsletter here.
Michigan regulators will hold an online public hearing on Jan. 28 to discuss redesignating parts of southwest Detroit and Downriver as meeting federal sulfur dioxide (SO2) air quality standards.
For more than a decade, regulators have designated a region along the Detroit River from downtown Detroit to Lake Erie as being in “nonattainment” under the Clean Air Act, meaning it did not meet federal standards for sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide is one of six criteria pollutants regulated under the act.
Because of the nonattainment designation, polluters in the area have faced stricter regulatory oversight for sulfur dioxide emissions, which can trigger asthma after short-term exposure and cause other respiratory problems. Sulfur dioxide can also react with other compounds to form fine particulate matter or PM 2.5, which is linked to cardiopulmonary problems and premature mortality.
The move to redesignate the area follows the closure of DTE Energy’s River Rouge and Trenton Channel coal power plants and state and federal efforts to reduce sulfur dioxide pollution from other sources in an area that still sees high levels of industrial emissions.
Nick Leonard, executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, told Planet Detroit that it took far too long to bring levels of the pollutant under control in an area where residents are highly vulnerable to air pollution
He said it was important for Michigan to find ways to prevent air pollution and respond to problems more quickly.
“These things aren’t supposed to take this long,” Leonard said. “If you were a kid born in 2010, you’ve essentially never had safe air to breathe.”
However, EGLE spokesperson Josef Greenberg said that ambient air monitors in the area have shown sulfur dioxide below the federal standard since 2014 and that current levels are at roughly half the standard.
The non-attainment area for sulfur dioxide in Wayne County includes parts of Detroit and downriver. Screenshot via EGLE document.
Delayed action on sulfur dioxide in an overburdened area
The non-attainment designations for sulfur dioxide for parts of Wayne and St. Clair Counties came after the EPA tightened its standard for the pollutant in 2010.
Yet, U.S. Steel was able to delay action with a successful lawsuit arguing an EGLE rule targeting its Ecorse facility was “discriminatory, arbitrary, unreasonable and prejudicial.”
EGLE spokesperson Josef Greenberg said that as a result of this action, the agency had to work with companies to develop alternate pollution controls and ensure they had federally enforceable restrictions in their air permits.
“This effort significantly extended the time needed to show the area attaining the standard,” Greenberg said.
The EPA released an implementation plan for Detroit’s sulfur dioxide nonattainment area in 2022 that included emissions limits for DTE’s Trenton Channel powerplant and the Carmeuse Lime facility in River Rouge, as well as the shutdown of the River Rouge power plant. The plan also included emissions limits throughout the U.S. Steel facility and a continuous emissions monitoring system.
In a statement accompanying the hearing announcement, EGLE said, “After years of working toward attainment, the analysis shows that the sulfur dioxide partial Wayne County Nonattainment Area meets the redesignation requirements” under the Clean Air Act. “EGLE has demonstrated that air quality improvements are due to permanent and enforceable measures,” it added.
However, Leonard said there are a handful of companies still emitting high levels of sulfur dioxide. This includes DTE’s EES coke facility on Zug Island, which a recent report found was the fifth highest emitter of S02 in the state and the fourth highest emitter of PM 2.5. The report found the facility is responsible for 29-57 premature deaths annually and 15,387 cases of asthma symptoms.
The area is also expected to be found in nonattainment for the EPA’s recently updated PM 2.5 standard. And between 2018 and 2022, Wayne County and several other nearby counties were in nonattainment for 8-hour ozone.
The state successfully removed the ozone nonattainment designation after requesting to exclude air monitoring data from several days in 2022, where it said high pollution readings were influenced by wildfire smoke, EGLE requested EPA allow it to discount this data under the Clean Air Act’s exceptional event provision.
The provision allows states to remove air quality sampling data that results from “unusual or naturally occurring events that can affect air quality but are not reasonably controllable” by regulators.
The Sierra Club sued the EPA over the redesignation in 2023, arguing the decision ignores the pollution risk to residents.
Leonard said the multiple air pollution threats in the area highlight the need for the state to address the impact to residents more aggressively.
Michigan’s MiEJScreen, an environmental justice screening tool, shows parts of Detroit, River Rouge and Ecorse included in the sulfur dioxide nonattainment area, with overall scores in the 95th and 100th percentiles, indicating an extremely high level of pollution exposure and underlying risk.
“We have a community that was subject to disproportionately high levels of a variety of air pollutants and are uniquely vulnerable in terms of their health status,” Leonard said. “It calls on our government to be more proactive and to acknowledge and do something about the lived reality that these folks are dealing with.”
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Featured image: Aerial view in November 2022 of steam and other emissions emerging through the haze at DTE EES Coke plant, Zug Island, River Rouge, Michigan
