DETROIT – The EPA announced on Monday that they are proposing a redesignation of Detroit being in “attainment” for national ground-level ozone standards for the first time since 2018.
The proposal came at the suggestion of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).
“A whole generation of Detroiters has grown up without having safe air to breathe,” said Nick Leonard, the executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. “On the east side of Detroit, we have ozone levels that are still above the health-based standard.
“We still have a state environmental department that hasn’t taken the basic steps that the Clean Air Act requires to lower ozone pollution and make sure people have safe air,” he said. Leonard’s firm has either sued or threatened to sue EGLE four times.
The issues with air pollution in Detroit are well-documented. According to a recent study from the American Lung Association, the city of Detroit’s air got an “F” grade due to the level of ozone and pollution in the air.
In southwest Detroit, the poor air quality has also been linked to illnesses such as asthma, eczema, and various types of cancers. The overall air quality in the city has been below standard for more than a decade.
“Attainment for ozone basically means two things,” Leonard said. “First, it means that air quality is meeting that health-based standard or is below the health-based standard.”
“It also means that the state has done everything it needs to do to reduce air pollution,” he said. “Both of those things are not true.”
Deb Sumner has lived in Southwest Detroit for nearly her entire life. She has been sounding the alarm about the issues of air pollution since the 1980s and is furious that the EPA would attempt do declare the air quality to have been improved.
“We live in the worst air quality in the state of Michigan,” Sumner, 70, said on Wednesday. “We’re not in ‘attainment’; we haven’t been in ‘attainment’ for over 10 years.”
Sumner blames the poor air quality for the amount of asthma and cancer cases – including her own – that she’s seen in Southwest Detroit.
“We did studies back in the day in Del Ray,” she said. “Why do these people have more cancer? Asthma is off the charts.”
State Sen. Stephanie Chang and State Rep. Donovan McKinney introduced the “Protecting Overburdened Communities Act” last year in Lansing. It would require state environmental regulators to consider the cumulative health impacts of multiple pollution sources.
Attempts to reach EGLE, as well as the city of Detroit, to get their comment on this proposal have not been returned. The EPA also has a 30-day period of public comment before making any changes.
The EPA said that the “attainment” proposal would “unlock economic growth by easing permitting burdens and providing regulatory certainty for businesses.”
“Economic development doesn’t matter if people don’t have safe air to breathe,” Leonard said. “We’re talking about people dying, people getting asthma that otherwise wouldn’t have asthma, people struggling to breathe.”