U.S. Ecology expansion plans may create additional public health risk for Eastside Detroit neighborhood

By Dennis Archambault

Urban Industrial plants that pose obvious environmental health risks are often located in areas where there are low income populations with little voice in public policy or environmental science expertise, especially when it comes to arguing the risk of environmental contamination with environmental quality administrators. Residents and environmental activists celebrating the closure of the trash incinerator on the edge of Midtown Detroit turned to expansion plans of the U.S. Ecology plant in a neighborhood bordering Hamtramck, which the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center classifies as a “socio-politically vulnerable community partially because it was the easiest place to site a facility that no one wants in their backyard.”

The expansion permit submitted by U.S. Ecology for its expansion project is a risk to public health, according to an analysis submitted to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in 2017. A public hearing on the project was held at the end of March. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, just over 10,000 people live within a mile of the U.S. Ecology facility. Of those people, 65% are people of color, 81% live below the federal poverty line, and 31% are children.

“Historically, hazardous waste facilities have been disproportionately located in low-income communities of color because these communities have typically been viewed as the path of least resistance in regard to the siting of what is a highly undesirable land use. This gives rise to the concern that a vulnerable community is being subjected to a disproportionate amount of harm and risk because it is a low-income community of color. Because of this reality, it is very important that all relevant decision-makers, be it the EPA, the MDEQ, the city of Detroit, or Wayne county, exercise precaution in considering the expansion of U.S. Ecology’s hazardous waste facility. Community residents are understandably concerned about a dramatic increase in the facility’s hazardous waste treatment and storage capacity and how this will impact their health and the health of their environment.”

The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center recommended that state regulators should “exercise precaution to ensure that community residents and our environment are adequately protected.” Essentially, a health impact assessment should be conducted, which would be routine if “health in all policies” were practiced in government.

Dennis Archambault is vice president for Public Affairs at Authority Health.