Governor Takes ‘Critical Step’ Toward Environmental Justice

For the people of Southwest Detroit, the concept of environmental justice in state government cannot become a reality soon enough.  Home to Michigan’s only oil refinery, three steel mills, one of the largest sewage/sludge incinerators in the U.S., the city’s water treatment plant, a salt mine, and the Ford Rouge Complex, the community hosts more than its share of the region’s polluting facilities. It also suffers from more than its share of their deleterious effects.

	U.S. Steel’s Zug Island complex dominates the landscape of Southwest Detroit’s Del Ray neighborhood. Photo: Lex Bozek

For these people, and others in similar communities around the state, mostly poor, mostly black and Latino, Governor Jennifer Granholm’s recently signed Executive Directive Promoting Environmental Justice represents the best hope for relief from pollution related burdens no single community should be forced to bear.

The governor’s directive, signed on Nov. 21, 2007, explicitly recognizes that “state government has an obligation to advance policies that foster environmental justice, social well-being, and economic progress,” and charges the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to “develop and implement a state environmental justice plan to promote environmental justice in Michigan.”

“‘Environmental justice,’” according to the document, “means the fair, non-discriminatory treatment and meaningful involvement of Michigan residents regarding the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies by this state.”

For environmental justice activists around the state, including Ecology Center community organizer Brad van Guilder, the governor’s directive is a critical step forward. Optimistically, says van Guilder, it could mean that residents of places like Southwest Detroit will have a new weapon to fight the excessive pollution that is part of their daily lives.

Currently, a facility is granted a permit from the state on its own merits, based on whether or not it will pollute within acceptable levels. “Up to now the state has largely looked at every facility individually as if no other facilities existed,” says van Guilder. The governor’s directive, if fully implemented, could require the state to consider whether siting a facility would place a “disproportionate negative impact” on a community. The concept is at the heart of environmental justice, says van Guilder. It forces the state and industry to consider upfront the cumulative impact that existing polluting facilities already have on a community when assessing the environmental impact of a proposed facility.

“With that in mind,” says van Guilder, “applying environmental justice standards to a project should be a positive tool for industry to work with in building sustainable business practices that reflect economic, environmental and social justice concerns.”

Environmental justice activists have for years advocated for such a change to state policy. The Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, which includes the Ecology Center, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice (DWEJ), the Sierra Club, the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), the Sugar Law Center, the East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC), and many others, was formed over a decade ago, during the reign of Gov. John Engler, a virulent opponent of environmental justice principles. The MEJC, in turn, created the Campaign for State Action on Environmental Justice (CSAEJ) to advance the idea that the state should seek to prevent any group of people, and particularly any group identifiable by race, color, national origin, or income, from having to bear a disproportionate share of negative environmental consequences.

The concept for the governor's environmental justice directive is the direct result of years of grassroots campaigning by CSAEJ and others in the state, while the language of the document is largely derived from the MDEQ's Environmental Advisory Council’s (EAC) February 2006, “Recommendations for an Environmental Justice Policy for Michigan.” That document was created from a deliberative process that officially began in May 2005, when EAC, a group of representatives from business, industry, local government, academia, and the environmental community, began a series of public meetings to consider environmental justice policy. The meetings involved presentations by experts and discussions, and included directors of various state agencies and representatives of citizen organizations concerned with environmental justice.

While EAC’s recommendations amounted to a draft of the executive directive, they actually reflected the essence of an October 2004, “Executive Order” draft for “State Actions to Address Environmental Justice In Minority and Low-Income Populations,” which was written by activist and attorney, Tom Stephens, who presented the document to MDEQ Director Steven Chester in December 2004.

The history of the executive directive is notable, van Guilder points out, because the document signed by the governor lacks what many environmental justice advocates consider key provisions. For example, the 2004 draft and EAC’s 2006 recommendations both included a call for the creation of an inter-agency working group to pursue the planning, implementation, and enforcement of environmental justice policy in the state. Instead, the governor put the responsibility solely in the hands of the MDEQ, which is the state’s most under-funded agency.

	The domed building houses People’s Community Services, one of the few social service agencies in Southwest Detroit’s Del Ray neighborhood. Photo: Melissa Sutton

Also included in preliminary drafts, but lacking from the governor’s final directive, is a direct resident petition process for affected communities, a mechanism that would have guaranteed meaningful citizen involvement in state deliberations, another pillar of the environmental justice concept.

Despite these shortcomings, environmental justice activists are appreciative of the governor’s actions and hopeful for a successful outcome. The directive calls for the MDEQ to establish an environmental justice working group of state officials and members of the public and to make a report on its progress by July 1, 2008.

“It will be very important in the coming months,” says van Guilder, “for citizens and activist organizations to pressure the MDEQ for a thorough implementation of the governor’s directive. Bringing environmental justice into the workings of state government will not only improve the quality of life for people in communities like Southwest Detroit, it will actually benefit all residents of a region, including those living in places like Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills, who are breathing much the same polluted air despite being miles from its concentrated source.”

L I N K S:

• Executive Directive No. 2007-23, Promoting Environmental Justice.
• Recommendations of the MDEQ EAC on Environmental Justice (pdf).
• State Actions to Address Environmental Justice In Minority and Low-Income Populations, Proposed Executive Order (pdf).