MEC staff works to stregthen Michigan's law enforcement efforts. Read about:
THE SITUATION
Michigan was once the country’s leader in both environmental protection and citizen participation in decision-making, but now lags far behind other states. Too many decisions affecting public health and the environment are now made behind closed doors to benefit special interests rather than the public.
The poor and disadvantaged suffer from these closed-door decisions most. Although struggling to breathe should not be a childhood rite of passage, one in five children in Detroit has asthma, far above the national average. Poor air quality and exposures to high levels of heavy metals and toxics disproportionately affect low-income families and children of color, causing behavioral problems, lowered IQs, and breathing impairments, among other damages to young bodies.
Such health and development problems are linked to heavy diesel trucks, industrial smokestack emissions, and myriad other environmental insults that MEC and our environmental justice partners are determined to ameliorate.
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SOLUTIONS ACHIEVED IN 2006
Lessoning Bridge Plan’s Fallout
MEC and our coalition are working to redesign a proposed international bridge crossing and truck plaza that would send 30,000 trucks each day past southwest Detroit neighborhoods and schools. We’re trying to move Southwestern High School away from the trucks and convince decision makers to use revenue from the environmentally burdensome bridge to ameliorate the risks to Michigan’s most vulnerable children.
Educating Policymakers on Environmental Justice
MEC and several of its allies hosted and Environmental Justice Tour in late 2006, highlighting for policy makers the environmental justice disparities in Detroit, Dearborn, Lansing, Grand Rapids and Saginaw. The tour helped focus attention on a pending Environmental Justice Executive Order currently under consideration by Gov. Granholm and on efforts to maintain Affirmative Action programs that helped offset many of the inherent disadvantages created by environmental injustice. When Michigan’s Affirmative Action programs were abolished by voters in the 2006 lection, this work took on increased urgency.
Transitioning from Incinerator
Groundwork was laid in 2006 for adoption of a Detroit Energy Plan, fostering economic development through conservation and smarter energy choices. MEC and several of its allies geared up to help elected officials smooth the transition from the city’s massive waste incinerator, which we hope to see closed in 2009, to new energy and waste disposal systems for a cleaner and healthier city.
Helping Youth Become Leaders
MEC also joined with allies in 2006 to develop leaderships programs for students, organizing youth training sessions and educational activities around health and environmental justice themes. More than two dozen students from Detroit and Oakland County participated in environmental leadership training, learning about organizing around issues including water rights, pollution-induced asthma, and pesticide dangers. These students were encouraged to make their voices heard when they attended MEC’s legislative breakfast in early 2007.
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GOALS FOR 2007
- Reform of the DEQ’s decision making process to promote environmental justice for all citizens through a fair, open public participation process;
- Creation of an Environmental Quality Commission of citizens to oversee the DEQ, which was itself created without citizen comment or participation;
- Legislation to protect the public’s right to know and understand the condition of the environment through collection and reporting of data on our air, water and land quality;
- Reinstatement of the state’s toxic chemicals public reporting program, which was unilaterally suspended by the DEQ in 1995; and
- Careful watch of spending priorities for the $675 million voter-approved 1998 environmental bond issue to assure that promises about the use of the money that were made to taxpayers are kept.
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