FLINT, MI -- Five community groups and the city of Flint are asking a Genesee Circuit Court judge to revoke an operating permit for an asphalt plant on the city’s border with Genesee Township, claiming it was rubberstamped by the state and does not comply with the federal Clean Air Act.
But in addition to the legal briefs that seek to void the permit granted by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, the company planning the project -- Ajax Materials Corp. -- is asking the same judge to reject conditions tied to the permit because they are unfair and over-reaching.
“EGLE cannot legally justify these onerous changes in the final (permit),” the company says in its brief. “Policy preferences and public perception do not change the legal basis for issuing a (permit). EGLE has a duty to ensure compliance with applicable requirements but lacks legal authority to bureaucratically impose more stringent conditions to ensure an ‘even greater level’ of compliance with those requirements.”
Among the conditions of the state air permit for Ajax are not allowing the company to burn waste oil, limits on the sulfur content in fuel, and what EGLE has said are more stringent testing of stack emissions.
The plant is located just across Flint’s border on Energy Drive off East Carpenter Road in Genesee Township -- an area the state describes as an impoverished neighborhood of color -- and has become a battleground on the issue of environmental racism.
Before EGLE approved the Ajax permit with conditions a year ago, the agency received more than 340 comments on the project with the overwhelming majority opposed to the facility.
The community groups -- Saint Francis Prayer Center, Environmental Transformation Movement of Flint, Flint Rising, C.A.U.T.I.O.N., and Michigan United -- are asking Judge David J. Newblatt to find the permit legally deficient and to require EGLE to restart the permitting process.
“The challenged permit does not comply with the rigorous standards of the Federal Clean Air Act and Michigan’s air quality rules,” attorneys for the groups say. “To the contrary, EGLE rubberstamped this permit with incomplete emissions projections that fail to reflect how the Ajax plant will operate and did not consider local air quality conditions using representative air quality monitors.”
Oral arguments on the legal briefs from the community groups, Ajax and the city have not yet been scheduled.
The local organizations are represented by Earthjustice and the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. They contend that Ajax’s hot-mix asphalt plant will have serious consequences for Flint and Genesee Township residents who already face high levels of pollution and the resulting health problems.
“We have a great outlined argument that I think will be very persuasive to the judge,” said Anthony Paciorek, environmental justice organizer for Michigan United. “EGLE isn’t being held accountable (and) didn’t do enough research” before issuing the permit to operate.
Paciorek said the plant, in addition to other industries in the area, has the potential to impact the health of generations of families living nearby.
In addition to Ajax, the area is also home to the Genesee Power Station, which is a wood-fired power plant that burns primarily wood waste from the logging industry, and RJ Torching, Inc., which began operations in 2006 and which has been a source of excessive smoke emissions, according to EGLE.
The type of facility Ajax wants to install is a hot mix asphalt plant that would mix aggregates and heated asphalt cement to produce asphalt ready to be used.
MLive-The Flint Journal could not reach representatives of EGLE or Ajax for comment on Friday, Nov. 11.
The city of Flint became involved in the air permit controversy in February after the City Council voted 8-0 to challenge the project.
Council’s action came after citizens organized to oppose the plant, staging a mock funeral on the steps of the Michigan Capitol Building, commemorating what they said could be the death of their neighborhood.
Although public comments received by the state have overwhelmingly opposed the facility, state officials have said most objections were outside the scope of its authority to consider.
Read more at The Flint Journal:
Despite overwhelming opposition, state approves permit for Flint area asphalt plant
City of Flint will challenge Ajax asphalt air permit