Founded in 1970, the Ecology Center serves one purpose: protecting healthy people and a healthy planet. We believe that the central question of our time is how human beings are going to thrive in the world without destroying the earth's ability to sustain us. This can only be achieved with your support.
Michigan Public Service Commission approves business as usual on spending and return on equity, but orders the Company to broaden consideration of energy justice in its business process, and expands innovative electric bus procurement model and low-income EV rebates
Lansing, MI– On Friday, December 1, 2023, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) released its final order in utility giant DTE Electric Company’s 2023 rate case. In its order, the Michigan Public Service Commission approved a rate increase of $368 million, a little more than half of DTE’s requested $619 million.
The Clean Energy Organizations (CEOs) – the Ecology Center, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Vote Solar, and Union of Concerned Scientists – are disappointed that the Commission authorized such a significant rate increase for DTE which will raise residential rates by roughly 6.38% while also holding one of the highest return on equities in the Midwest at 9.9%. The Commission sent the message to the Company that bottom quartile performance was worthy of a continued rich reward through its return on equity.
Despite the CEO disappointment regarding some of the top line issues in the cases, there were at least three notable positives that came out of the Commission order that related directly to the important advocacy work of the Clean Energy Organizations.
First, the Commission ordered the Company to perform important energy justice and reliability analyses in future rate cases as recommended by the CEO and MPSC staff. Among these important additions to future rate cases are: more detailed environmental justice analysis on community vulnerability, better data on customer interruptions, better availability of GIS data, and climate resiliency planning in future distribution grid plans.
James Gignac, Midwest Senior Policy Manager at Union of Concerned Scientists, said:
“Under today’s order, DTE will be required to provide important information going forward on how its grid planning affects environmental justice communities. Based on expert testimony and recommendations of MPSC Staff, DTE will now need to be more transparent and better assess how vulnerable customers experience the costs and benefits of DTE’s electricity system.”
Second, and relatedly, the Commission ordered the Company to use a robust method for understanding the differential reliability experience of customers in environmental justice communities in future grid plans. This recommendation was spurred by the excellent testimony of Vote Solar’s Boratha Tan, Midwest Regulatory Manager, and Will Kenworthy, who demonstrated the important relationship between duration of outages and race, income, and population density.
Will Kenworthy, Midwest Regulatory Director at Vote Solar, said:
“In our testimony, the CEOs demonstrated that there are clear and meaningful differences in reliability experiences of customers in environmental justice communities. The Commission adopted many of our recommendations to understand existing disparities and to address them through improved, more transparent, and robust planning processes. We were particularly pleased that the Commission singled out our innovative approach to using regression analysis to more accurately understand the relationship between equity and reliability.”
Third, the Commission approved the expansion of the Company’s eFleet battery pilot into a permanent program. This program allows the utility to finance the upfront costs of electric batteries for buses for school districts and transit authorities who may not be able to afford these high costs. This will benefit all Michiganders by spurring electrification and taking dirty diesel engines off the road.
Charles Griffith, Climate and Energy Program Director at the Ecology Center, said:
“We’re pleased the Commission’s Order approved the Company’s eFleet battery program as well as low-income EV purchase rebates. However, it could have gone further to approve other pilots that would provide more equitable access to charging infrastructure, such as the proposed Community Chargers program. While a rebate program will help low-income households afford the purchase of an EV, without a place to charge them, EVs will remain unattainable for many.”
The Commission also acknowledged the need to improve transparency in the Company’s distribution system planning process, including more thorough, robust, and transparent application of the Company’s Global Prioritization model. While it declined to require contested cases in the distribution grid plans, the Commission admonished DTE to lend serious consideration to incorporating Staff and stakeholder feedback into its distribution plan process.
Going forward, the CEO will continue to engage across the many dockets which these issues of equity and justice in electrical regulation are considered. While we are heartened by the positive steps taken by the Commission today, we remain committed to achieving grid equity and creating a just and equitable clean energy transition.
New laws will bring accountability for big utilities, help lower costs for ratepayers
DETROIT, Mich. – A nonpartisan coalition of organizations committed to tackling the climate crisis in Michigan today praised Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for signing bills to hold utilities accountable to achieving a 100% clean energy standard.
Michigan is positioned to lead nationally when it comes to advancing clean energy and energy efficiency with Whitmer signing the Clean Energy Future bill package (Senate Bills 271, 273 and 502) and bills to streamline the permitting process for renewable energy, like wind and solar, for farmers and local communities (House Bills 5120-5121).
“Up until today, Michigan’s big utilities have been prolonging the state’s dependence on dirty coal and gas,” said Dr. Denise Keele, Executive Director, Michigan Climate Action Network. “As we approach the climate boundaries of habitable life for humans, Gov. Whitmer’s bill signing represents a historic shift for Michigan in building out wind and solar across the state, and holding big utilities accountable to curtail dangerous pollution by achieving 60% renewable energy by 2035. I commend the lawmakers who championed the explicit inclusion of climate, health, equity, and affordability in utilities long-range plans for the first time.”
The new laws boost energy independence by creating a tenfold increase in access to rooftop solar and giving Michigan farmers greater ability to lease their land out for clean energy by cutting red tape to build out projects across Michigan, creating local jobs and generating tax revenue for local communities. The new laws also create some of the most robust energy efficiency standards in the country, helping to address affordability, health and safety for many low-income Michigan households.
“Michigan’s new laws will help improve public health by reducing dangerous pollution in our air and water,” said Dr. Elizabeth (Lisa) Del Buono, Executive Director, Michigan Clinicians for Climate Action. “Increasing our use of clean renewable energy also protects the Great Lakes. I want to thank the legislators who voted in favor of these bills and to Governor Gretchen Whitmer for her leadership.”
“This legislative package is not just about the environment and climate, there are major economic benefits for Michigan as well,” said Dr. Martin Kushler, Senior Fellow with the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. “Michigan is almost entirely dependent upon imports from other states and countries for all of the fossil fuels we consume, which drains over $18 billion a year from the state economy. By increasing energy efficiency and Michigan-based renewable energy, this package of bills will reduce that financial drain and help keep those dollars here in Michigan.”
“These bills translate into better air, water, and health for everyone,” said Derrell Slaughter, Michigan Clean Energy Advocate at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “The pathbreaking standards for the Midwest industrial heartland will see the state move to 100% clean energy by 2040 and put more resources toward energy efficiency. Michigan has seized the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to combating climate change and ensure a sustainable, just, and prosperous future for our state.”
"Michigan’s new energy laws will bring more clean, renewable solar and wind power to our communities than any other state in the Midwest, promoting cleaner air and water for all Michiganders," said Charles Griffith, Ecology Center Climate and Energy Director. "Not only will Michiganders breathe cleaner air and drink cleaner water, but workers building these new renewable resources will be protected by the highest labor standards of any climate legislation in the country, ensuring prevailing wages, project labor agreements, and explicit hiring and training requirements in underserved communities."
“The signing of the Clean Energy Future Package into law is a major win for birds and wildlife across the state. Two-thirds of North American bird species are at-risk of extinction from climate change and Michigan species like the Black Tern are hanging on by a thread,” said Marnie Urso, Senior Policy Director for Audubon Great Lakes. “Taking action, like Michigan did today, is the momentum we need to reach net-zero carbon emissions to protect birds and communities.”
The following groups also expressed support for the governor signing the bills: Evergreen Action, Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America - Michigan Chapter, Ceres, Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association (GLREA), Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation and League of Women Voters of Michigan.
The Ecology Center's Healthy Stuff Lab partnered with TV stations at Cox Media Group, Inc. to test 245 receipts from businesses in eight U.S. cities (Orlando, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Charlotte, Boston, Pittsburgh, Dayton, and Seattle.) This 2023 study is a follow-up to our earlier study of 571 receipts from two dozen states nationwide. In both studies, the businesses sampled included national chains and smaller local and regional stores.
Receipts, nearly all of which are made of a specially coated paper called thermal paper, were mailed to the Ecology Center and tested with FTIR. This test identified the primary color developer chemical used in each receipt.
Bisphenol developers, specifically bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol A (BPA), are known health hazards. In contrast, the various alternative developers in use are, in some cases, environmental hazards and need more evaluation.
Key Findings
4 out of 5 receipts tested had toxic BPS
As shown in Figure 1, 80% of the tested receipts were coated with BPS, 10% with Pergafast 201, 4% with NKK-1304, 2% with BPA, 2% with an unidentified developer, and 1% were uncoated, plain paper. Pergafast 201 and NKK-1304 are non-bisphenol alternatives.
The results are similar to the 2022 study, which found 85% BPS, 12% Pergafast 201, and roughly 3% other alternative developers, including NKK-1304. The use of NKK-1304 has slightly increased in 2023, but more sampling is needed to determine if this is a consistent trend.
As we saw in 2022, smaller businesses with a local or regional reach (those with stores in up to 10 states) were more likely to use receipts coated with bisphenols. Large national chains still had the majority of BPS but were more likely than smaller businesses to have switched to alternatives.
Join us in asking Kroger to protect shoppers and workers from toxic receipts by offering e-receipts and safer printed receipts.
In a new study, the Ecology Center Healthy Stuff Lab found that 80% of receipts tested positive for toxic bisphenols such as BPS.
Nationwide news reports are helping to alert the public to the harmful chemicals coating the receipts most commonly handed out from retailers.
As a hormone-disrupting chemical, BPS is linked to fetal development issues, reproductive impairment, type 2 diabetes, thyroid conditions, and other health concerns. It can pass from the receipt through the skin and into the bloodstream. Exposure to BPS is particularly problematic for cashiers who handle receipts all day and for pregnant women who are at greater risk of adverse health outcomes from BPS exposure.
Today the Michigan House passed the Clean Energy Future Package (Senate Bills 271, 273, 502, & 519). This legislation culminates years of work and months of grueling negotiations by a broad coalition. It is Michigan's most substantial effort to address climate change, improve air quality, and promote equity to date– putting it on the national stage with other leading progressive states. The legislation is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 82% from Michigan’s electricity sector and cumulatively avoid 364 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2040 compared to the status quo.
The passage of the Clean Energy Future Package is a significant step forward, moving us toward a cleaner, more equitable energy system and actualizing the Governor's MI Healthy Climate Plan. The bills increase the state's renewable energy standard from 15% to 50% by 2030, and to 100% clean energy by 2040. The bills increase the cap on distributed generation, giving more Michiganders the ability to invest in rooftop solar and storage. And these bills provide Michigan the ability to leverage billions of federal dollars through the Inflation Reduction Act.
The package strengthens energy waste reduction standards for gas and electric utilities and, for the first time, requires a minimum spending amount for low-income households. The legislation clears the way for some investments in building electrification and moving health and safety measures that prepare homes for weatherization and efficiency measures into full program offerings. Additionally, there are incentives for utilities to invest a significant portion of their residential energy waste reduction on building shell improvements such as air sealing and insulation, moving away from just replacing equipment.
Additionally, this legislation would also allow the Michigan Public Service Commission to consider health, equity, affordability, environmental justice, and climate in utility integrated resource plans, giving real weight to arguments that we have been making at the Commission for years. Finally, the legislation would create an Office of Just Transition to assist communities and workers potentially impacted by the energy transition. A group of companion bills (House Bills 5120-5121) also passed. These bills would streamline the permitting process for renewable energy, like wind and solar.
All of these provisions were hard-fought and worth celebrating. But more than one thing can be true at the same time. We still have a long way to go. The final versions of these bills are not as strong as we hoped and fought for; but they were the best we could achieve in this legislative session, given pressure from utilities and big industry, who still hold far too much influence over the legislature. We have a lot more work to do to hold utilities accountable and to achieve a truly clean and equitable energy future.
There were some disappointing losses in the bill package. We were not able to get provisions to expand community solar, and further legislation is needed to specifically address that issue. One particularly disappointing loss was the failure to strike the inclusion of the Grand Rapids trash incinerator from its current category as a renewable energy resource. The Ecology Center has been a leader in the fight against trash incineration as a waste management strategy and stands with its Environmental Justice partners in declaring that burning trash is not equitable, clean energy. Additionally, the broad definition of clean energy opens the door to unproven and expensive technologies that do not adequately address the environmental harms that burden our environmental justice communities.
The Ecology Center is committed to continuing this fight, both in the legislature and at the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), to improve upon the legislation's shortcomings and to ensure that its implementation prevents some of the problematic provisions from coming to fruition.
We thank you for your support and ask that you thank your legislators who voted in favor of this critical legislation. We will keep fighting to support equitable, affordable, clean energy for all Michiganders.
Lead levels are harmful in many schools and childcare centers. With 'Filter First', they soon won't be
Thousands of Michigan children are at risk of lead poisoning. They’ll soon be protected at the places where they spend much of their days.
Last week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law “Filter First” legislation, three bills that will require the installation of lead water filters in all schools and childcare centers. Costs will be offset by $50 million dollars set aside (so far) in the state budget.
Schools and daycares should be places where children are safe from dangerous neurotoxins, like lead," said Meli Garcia, regional environmental health organizer for the Ecology Center. “Lead impairs children’s brain development and can trigger serious and irreversible learning, and behavioral problems. Now water that has been sitting for extended periods in school pipes will be filtered before children and staff take a drink.
“Michigan lawmakers have just enacted the nation’s strongest measures protecting kids from lead in school and childcare centers,” said Cyndi Roper, Michigan senior policy advocate for NRDC. “These bills implement a solution that actually gets lead out of drinking water while also realizing dramatic cost savings.”
The legislation’s passage comes after a nationwide Environment America report gave Michigan an F grade for its efforts to remove lead from school drinking water. With “Filter First” legislation becoming law, the ranking would be boosted to an A.
Research by Elin Betanzo of Safe Water EngineeringLLC revealed that 89% of the 114 schools and childcare facilities that voluntarily submitted water samples to the state had dangerous amounts of lead in their water.
Lead stunts mental, physical, and social development. Young children, whose minds and bodies are growing most, are especially at risk. No amount of lead is safe.
The filters will prevent lead found in fountains and taps from leaching into the water that children and staff drink. Lead leaching is possible in water fixtures new and old and is especially prevalent in those left unused for long periods of time. That makes schools and childcare centers, with their many breaks and weekend closures, especially prone to lead contamination.
“We have monitored hydration stations in older school buildings in Michigan and have hundreds of data points,” said Nancy Love, a distinguished university professor at the University of Michigan. “Bottom line: Lead exists in buildings without lead service lines, and hydration stations with properly maintained filters work to remove lead below detection. The Filter First legislation is a game changer for Michigan’s children.”
“There has not been a bigger moment in the lead poisoning fight since lead paint was banned 45 years ago,” said Charlotte Jameson, chief policy officer for the Michigan Environmental Council. “Momentum is on our side. We can make lead poisoning history, not current reality.”
The policy within the legislation, dubbed “Filter First,” is more effective than replacing water infrastructure outright because even new plumbing contains lead. It is also hundreds of millions of dollars cheaper and much faster to implement, according to an analysis prepared by NRDC for the Filter First Coalition, a 40-member group that has advocated for such policies for over five years.
The legislation’s passage comes as other transformational lead prevention efforts are realized. Gov. Whitmer also approved the widely bipartisan effort to get all toddlers routinely tested for lead poisoning, and legislation to get more homes tested and treated for lead contamination is moving through the political process.
“Michigan has recently passed two important pieces of legislation to move the needle on lead poisoning of Michigan children,” said Mary Sue Schottenfels, staff member with Wayne State University’s Detroit Lead Parent Advocacy Group. “Filter First assures safe drinking water in Michigan schools and Universal Lead Testing makes sure that ALL Michigan children will be tested for lead poisoning at ages 1 and 2. Although we need to do more to eradicate lead poisoning in our State, this is real and meaningful progress.”
The Ecology Center voiced support for legislation introduced today to hold polluters accountable for cleaning up contamination. The seven-bill package, led by Sen. Jeff Irwin and Rep. Jason Morgan, would increase transparency for contaminated site cleanup and put in place accountability measures so corporations that pollute our land and water are responsible for paying to clean it up, not taxpayers.
“Corporate polluters must pay for the burden they place on communities' health,” said Michael Garfield, director of the Ecology Center. “Too often, communities living near polluting industries face higher rates of cancers, asthma, and other diseases. This package of bills will make it easier for those harmed by pollution to seek justice and holds polluters accountable to cleaning up their mess."
Michigan has more than 24,000 known contaminated sites. The corporate polluters who caused the damage have evaded responsibility for cleanup costs at about half of those sites, putting the financial burden of “orphaned” sites on the state and, ultimately, taxpayers. Even at sites with a “responsible party,” current law allows polluters to leave contamination in place if they limit access. The Polluter Pay legislation will set more stringent cleanup standards, increase transparency, prevent sites from becoming orphaned, and make it easier for those harmed by pollution to seek justice.
From 1990 to 1995, Michigan was a national leader in holding corporate polluters accountable thanks to strong “Polluter Pay” laws. During that five-year period, Michigan taxpayers saved more than $100 million because corporate polluters were better held accountable for paying for their mess. In 1995, those laws were stripped away, and the number of contaminated sites has increased.
The Electric Vehicle Transition Should Be a Just Transition for Workers
We believe you cannot have a healthy planet without healthy people – and healthy people need safe working conditions, fair, family-sustaining wages, and good benefits. That’s why the Ecology Center stands with the United Auto Workers (UAW) in support of their strike demands for a fair share of the auto industry’s profits and full partnership as the industry makes the transition to electric vehicles.
We joined with 100+ organizations in signing on to Labor Network for Sustainability’s open letter to the CEOs of General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis urging them to do right by the workers by preserving and strengthening good union jobs as they transition to clean transportation. The full letter can be read here.
The Ecology Center’s Director, Mike Garfield, said the following,
“Former UAW President Walter Reuther was a keynote speaker at Michigan’s first Earth Day in 1970, the event that led to the founding of the Ecology Center. Soon after, the Ecology Center and UAW organized one of the first labor-environment conferences at the UAW’s Black Lake retreat center.
Over the decades, we have worked alongside autoworkers to address environmental health issues both inside and outside the auto industry’s factory walls. The Ecology Center’s staff have been union members since 1991. As UAW auto workers stand up on the strike line, we stand in solidarity with them.
The United States must transition to electric vehicles, and Michigan is poised to lead this transition. However, it cannot come at the expense of autoworkers’ health and well-being. We must prioritize individual and community health above profits. We can build a nation with unionized, well-paying green jobs to support our transition to a cleaner, more sustainable future.”
ANN ARBOR, MI — The Ecology Center announces the receipt of $25,000 to support work with the City of Lansing to take innovative and equitable steps to improve children’s health. Three city projects were given awards totaling $75,000 to be split between the municipalities working to reduce neurotoxic exposures for expectant families and young children while also addressing climate change.
“Sadly, at birth, babies have already been exposed to hundreds of toxic chemicals from a wide range of sources, including consumer products, industrial pollution, and pesticide applications,” said Tracey Easthope, Senior Strategist from the Ecology Center. “This funding will help us use the power of purchasing to reduce harmful chemicals in products, thereby limiting one source of chemical exposure.”
With the funding, the City of Lansing, MI,will implement an adopted sustainable procurement policy and create practical deliverables that other municipalities can use to foster sustainable procurement in their communities. The Ecology Center will provide technical assistance and support.
“The partnership with the Ecology Center is critical to provide important technical support for our work to implement our city’s Sustainable Procurement Policy to better protect our residents and employees, to address the changing climate, and to protect the environment,” said Lori Welch, Sustainability Manager for the City of Lansing – Public Service Department.
The City of Lansing has been an active participant in the Great Lakes Climate Adaptation Network (GLCAN) Procurement Workgroup, formed by the Ecology Center to support regional sustainability and procurement professionals as they work towards more socially- and environmentally-conscious purchasing practices. Through the workgroup, cities, counties, and universities across the region collaborate to build robust, sustainable purchasing programs and implement progressive criteria.
Though 35 of the 50 largest US cities have adopted local climate action plans, just a fraction of cities have integrated specific strategies to reduce ubiquitous toxic exposures within their climate, sustainability, or resilience plan. To help reduce this gap, Healthy Babies Bright Futures awarded three $25,000 grants for cities to plan a locally appropriate action that reduces neurotoxic exposures with a climate, resilience, and/or sustainability co-benefit. Cities in Michigan, Colorado, and North Carolina were selected as recipients of this funding.
In addition to the work in Lansing, the City of Boulder, CO, will develop and implement a sharable communication campaign to leverage community environmental toxic chemical exposure studies so residents better understand the impact of lawn chemicals on prenatal and early childhood exposure and healthier alternatives. The City of Hendersonville, NC, partnered with community-based organizations on a community garden revitalization project, including growing food using organic methods, conducting cooking classes, and providing hands-on educational experiences in the garden for neighborhood children.
“It’s exciting to see individual municipal actions being integrated into a city’s day-to-day work,” said Kyra Naumoff Shields, PhD, Bright Cities Program Director. “We are thrilled to work collaboratively with talented staff in Boulder, Hendersonville, and Lansing and with their technical advisors to support local work and share it broadly to help build brighter futures for the kids in all of our lives.”
About the Ecology Center
The Ecology Center is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization established in 1970 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Ecology Center develops innovative solutions for healthy people and a healthy planet in four primary areas: environmental health, environmental education, energy & climate change, and zero waste. This work is accomplished through educating consumers to help keep their families healthy and safe, pushing corporations to use clean energy, make safe products, and provide healthy food, and working with policymakers to establish laws that protect communities and the environment. For more information, visit www.ecocenter.org and follow @Ecology_Center.
About the City of Lansing
Lansing, Michigan, is a city that has a rich and diverse history. Michigan’s capital since 1848, the City of Lansing was incorporated in 1859 and is currently home to approximately 113,000 residents. The City of Lansing formally adopted its Sustainability Action Plan in 2022, demonstrating its commitment to cultivating a more vibrant, resilient, and sustainable city.
About HBBF: Healthy Babies Bright Futures is a nonprofit organization that measurably reduces the largest sources of babies’ exposures to neurotoxic chemicals that harm brain development. We use original research, city governments, and strategic partnerships to empower parents, build resilient communities, and pressure decision-makers to keep babies' brains safe from neurotoxic exposures.
The Bright Cities program provides grants and tailored best practices to city governments to equitably reduce community exposures to neurotoxic chemicals. Forty-four cities have designed and completed projects that reduced harmful exposures to neurotoxic chemicals. Our three main areas of focus are: healthier air and environments; nontoxic and environmentally-preferable purchasing; and increasing access to organic and healthy food. View the RFP for this award.
It started with a 17-hour drive across the Midwest in a car filled with $20,000 worth of air quality monitoring equipment.
The rest of the cohort followed by airplane a few days later.
The league of environmental justice champions from southeast Michigan included Donele Wilkins of Green Door Initiative, Theresa Landrum from the Original United Citizens of Southwest Detroit (48217), Roshan Krishnan from Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, Raquel Garcia from Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision, and Kathryn Savoie and Jeff Gearhart from the Ecology Center.
The Detroit group was headed to the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota to meet with indigenous activists from the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations, known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. Their activist counterparts in North Dakota were from the Dakota Resource Council and the Fort Berthold Protectors of Water and Earth Rights (POWER).
For years, both groups of advocates had been fighting the same offender: the petrochemical industry. And though they lived thousands of miles apart and on separate ends of the supply chain – extraction in North Dakota and refining in Michigan – both parties suffered from the same ailment: toxic air pollution.
It made sense that the two groups meet to swap notes and support each other.
The goals of the meet-up were two-fold.
First, collect data. Tribal members knew fracking operations were impacting their air quality and their health. But without air monitors on the reservation, they had no evidence. An air monitor network, the first on the Fort Berthold Reservation, would provide much-needed data to support their requests for stronger regulation.
Second, build power. The two groups planned to share knowledge and create community among themselves. With an adversary as rich as the oil and gas industry, the only effective tactic to counterbalance their wealth of resources is to build people’s power to push back.
The trip helped to develop relations between our two communities. We have more in common than not,” said Raquel Garcia, executive director of Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision. “We were able to dive in and learn about each other's communities and become invested in each other's projects and visions.
But how did folks from Detroit and tribal members in rural North Dakota end up with air pollution from the same industry, even, at times, the same company? The Detroiters were about to learn the reason.
Detroit environmental justice leaders and a tribal member stand beside a recently installed air monitor on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.
The Ever-Shrinking Sovereign Territory of Fort Berthold
The first stop on the reservation for the Detroit leaders was the Three Affiliated Tribes Museum in New Town, North Dakota, where they learned the history of the tribe and the land.
Upon entering the museum, there hangs a photo of an indigenous man, head bowed, weeping as he bends to sign a document. The document he is signing will give away the tribe’s land rights to the United States for little in return. And while the photo is from the 1940s, the sentiment captured could be from any time in the last 200 years.
When first recognized by the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851, the Fort Berthold reservation encompassed 12 million acres. Today, the reservation comprises slightly less than a million. Repeated land confiscation by the United States government and the impacts of the Dawes Act, which broke up communally-owned land into individually-owned parcels, resulted in the increasingly shrinking territory of the Three Affiliated Tribes.
Nonetheless, before the 1950s, the reservation was self-sustaining, with tribal members raising livestock and farming the land around the banks of the Missouri River, which splits the reservation on a northwest-to-southeast diagonal. Sadly, following the Flood Control Act of 1944, the United States Army Corps of Engineers installed the Garrison Dam on the Missouri River, flooding out more than 150,000 acres of reservation land. The effects of the dam on the tribal nation were devastating – 325 families, representing 80% of the tribal membership, were forced to relocate to higher ground when the rising water submerged their homes, towns, churches, and graveyards. The tribe lost nearly all of its agricultural land.
Map of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation before and after the Garrison Dam was constructed. The tribe lost more than 150,000 acres due to dam construction.
When the oil and gas companies came knocking on the tribe’s door in the early 2000s, it’s likely the residents were not surprised that the white people had come to take from them again.
That the reservation was sitting atop rich oil and gas reserves had been well established. But excavating it had been cost-prohibitive until the industry perfected the technique of hydraulic fracturing, known colloquially as fracking.
The fracking boom in North Dakota took off in 2008 and the state quickly became one of the top oil-producing states in America.
When land is fracked, after drilling deep into the Bakken shale bed, a high-pressure mixture of water, sand, and chemicals is shot horizontally into the bedrock, creating fractures. These fractures are held open by sand in the fracking fluid, from which escapes that treasured substance: oil and gas.
But that’s not all – methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, is also pushed out during fracking, sometimes so much so that the gas must be flared, or lit, to burn off the excess gas. The flares on the reservation and west North Dakota shine so brightly they can be seen from space.
Along with methane, fracking operations release toxic petroleum hydrocarbons like benzene, toluene, and xylene, and increase ground-level ozone. The industry also brought heavy-duty truck traffic clamoring through the area, kicking up dust, increasing truck-related traffic fatalities, and further polluting the air with diesel emissions.
Our environmental justice team had come to help investigate these air pollutants.
“We hold all of Mother Earth sacred, including the air.”
After learning the history of the land, the group met with a longtime activist and recently elected state House of Representatives member, Lisa Finley-DeVille. Lisa has been working on air quality and environmental justice on the reservation for many years.
The people of my tribe, The Three Affiliated Tribes, have lived on and cared for our land for millennia. We hold all of Mother Earth sacred, including the air,” said Lisa, as reported by Buffalo’s Fire in 2021. “Since the start of the Bakken oil boom, the oil and gas industry has polluted our air and harmed our health by flaring and venting methane from wells and pipelines.
Lisa and her husband gave their visitors a tour of the reservation, highlighting the toxic legacy of the oil and gas industry. They brought them up to date on how the community had been working to combat the negative impacts of fracking and flaring around the reservation.
Together, the group installed the last of the seven air monitors on the rolling grasslands, with grazing horses, jutting buttes, and robotic well pumps dotting the landscape behind them. An air sampling device, which pulls air into a canister when toxic compounds are detected, was also installed to provide definitive evidence of pollutants present.
The environmental justice leaders from Detroit tour the reservation with tribal member and House Representative Lisa Finley-DeVille, learning its history and the sources of air pollution.
The data from the monitors will be displayed on an online dashboard to allow people to access real-time information about the air they breathe. After six months, the compiled data will be shared with the community and elected officials so they can take informed action and work on policy solutions. Colorado State University will analyze the samples collected for toxic air pollutants like methane and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like benzene, toluene, and ethane.
“We need to move away from fossil fuels”
The environmental justice leaders from Detroit were well-versed in community-based air monitoring. The group has worked together for the past two years to install a neighborhood-level monitoring network in their city. Most of the group had worked on environmental justice in their communities for decades.
Detroit and nearby municipalities suffer more from poor air quality and higher asthma rates than any other Michigan community. The University of Michigan estimates over 700 premature deaths occur annually in Detroit from exposure to pollution.
One of the decades-long advocates is Theresa Landrum, who lives in southwest Detroit. Her neighbors, mostly Black homeowners, have passed their houses down through multiple generations. Across the street from her neighborhood’s community center is an oil refinery, one of the dozens of industrial sites nearby. Her zip code, 48217, is number one in air pollution in Michigan. According to the EPA, a disproportionate amount of people have asthma and cancer in her neighborhood, likely due to sulfur dioxide emitted from the plant.
For years, she has raised awareness in her community about the dangers of emissions, brought elected officials and media on toxic tours of the industrial sites, and supported policy and planning efforts to end air pollution.
Traveling to North Dakota with the Ecology Center to learn about fracking, the area concerns, the history of the area, and forming allies across the country deepened my understanding and urgency of why we need to move away from fossil fuels even more,” said Theresa.
Like their indigenous allies, air pollution was just one of the problems inflicted on their Detroit communities. Racist planning policies put industrial and manufacturing facilities, an incinerator, and highways in their backyards, impacting their health and local economies and displacing hundreds of families.
Building Community Power at the Parshall Powwow
After three days of learning and information sharing, the group celebrated by attending a local powwow in nearby Parshall, North Dakota. They enjoyed traditional Native American foods like fry bread. The sound of drums echoed throughout while folks of all ages, from toddlers to elders, were called up to dance. Those present celebrated their community, culture, and shared resilience in carrying it forward.
In October, the North Dakota partners returned the visit and came to Detroit to reconnect with the Detroit environmental justice activists and learn about the impact of the oil and gas industry in the city.
Together, the groups will work to build power and share advocacy and policy solutions. And hopefully, one day, the air will be clearer in both communities.
To view the air quality monitoring dashboard on the Fort Berthold Reservation, visit the Just Air portal.
The Ecology Center’s Regional Environmental Health Organizer, Meli Garcia, provides her perspective.
This fall brings unprecedented progress toward ending childhood lead poisoning in Michigan. A set of lead poisoning prevention bills have been reviewed by the legislature. These policies include universal testing of all children at ages one and two years old, installing water filters in all of Michigan’s daycare centers and schools, and giving the state enforcement over the federal Renovation, Repair and Painting Act. Both the universal testing and filter first bills have been signed into law.
The Ecology Center has been working to remove lead from our homes and environment for almost five decades. We are elated to see this long-overdue progress.
Our regional environmental health organizer, Meli X. Garcia, works tirelessly alongside the Great Lakes Lead Elimination Network (GLLEN) to end lead poisoning through lobbying and education. But Meli’s advocacy work isn’t just a vocation – it’s personal, too. She was exposed to lead as a child through her bedroom windows and suffered fatigue, brain fog, and trouble concentrating.
Lead has been found on toys, in paint (in homes built before 1978), in the soil, in the water, and in other consumer products.
Lead is especially dangerous for children. According to the Centers for Disease Control, lead can cause “developmental delays, difficulty learning, behavioral issues, and neurological damage.” There is no healthy amount of lead exposure for children.
Lead poisoning is a public health issue that has persisted for decades. In this interview, we shine a light on Meli’s lead advocacy work, her personal experiences with lead, and the advice she has given the public on what we can do to make things better.
(This interview has been edited for clarity and length.)
Why is lead advocacy work important to you?
Lead advocacy work is extremely important to me because it should not exist any longer. It’s been over 70 years since the poisoning first started in the United States due to lead paint. Although we have seen progress, we need to see a final end to all lead poisoning! It’s very damaging to our children and family’s health. We need to ensure the safety of our children and be the voice for them. It can cause ADHD, neurological issues, nerve damage, concentration issues, lower IQ, and behavioral issues.
Although we have seen progress, we need to see a final end to all lead poisoning!
Do you have a personal connection to this work? What motivates you to continue in it?
I do have a personal connection. I was exposed to lead as a child. I had to consume a high vitamin C-rich diet and an iron-rich diet. My symptoms were fatigue, brain fog, irritability, and not being able to concentrate in school. I was exposed through lead-chipped paint in my bedroom windows. This exact problem persists today.
How did you get involved with lead advocacy work?
I got involved with lead advocacy work in September of 2022. I was drawn to helping in the efforts to end lead poisoning at a regional and policy level. I also have had the opportunity to hear the stories and work directly with those families directly impacted by lead poisoning.
I am motivated to continue to work with lead issues because children and our families deserve to live a lead-free life.
This is a big, multi-part problem. What do you believe needs to happen to solve it? Is solving it possible, or is progress the best we can hope for?
We need to pass policies that help protect our children. We have to reach lawmakers and strive to pass current lead legislation that provides filtered drinking water and universal testing for our children. We have to get to the source of the problem, which is lead paint!
My goal for lead advocacy work is to speak with lawmakers and help educate them on the Ecology Center’s lead priorities. The Ecology Center and its lead allies have been working on getting filter first and universal testing bill* packages to pass. I want to help push for those! I also want to help our GLLEN members connect and work together regionally to end lead poisoning.
(GLLEN is a coalition of non-profit organizations in the Great Lakes states working on solutions to end lead poisoning.)
*Universal testing of toddlers for lead and the filter first policy were signed into law in fall 2023.
How does working on lead advocacy make you feel?
I understand that passing legislation takes time. Lawmakers are bombarded with several policies they need to move. We are just one piece of the public health puzzle. I get excited because we have a lot of caring regular people, health professionals, and, of course, the Ecology Center, who are being the voice for our children.
The only way to make real change is to change the mind of lawmakers and keep advocating to move and pass lead legislation, otherwise old bad policies will continue to harm our children.
What can community members do to help?
Community members can get their children tested for lead. They can test their homes for lead as well. They can also call their lawmakers and urge them to pass current lead legislation. For those who have been directly impacted by lead poisoning, they can testify and share their story with the local press.
Get Involved
In 2021, Michigan ranked 3rd in a nationwide assessment of blood-lead levels in children; 78% of children who were tested had lead in their blood. Learn more about the Ecology Center’s lead advocacy work here.
