[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE:
EXPLORING INEQUITIES IN
AIR AND WATER QUALITY
IN MICHIGAN
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT
of the
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT
AND REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
SEPTEMBER 16, 2019
__________
Serial No. 116-60
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Reform
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available on: http://www.govinfo.gov
http://www.oversight.house.gov or
http://www.docs.house.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
37-954 PDF WASHINGTON : 2019
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM
ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland, Chairman
Carolyn B. Maloney, New York Jim Jordan, Ohio, Ranking Minority
Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Member
Columbia Paul A. Gosar, Arizona
Wm. Lacy Clay, Missouri Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts Thomas Massie, Kentucky
Jim Cooper, Tennessee Mark Meadows, North Carolina
Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia Jody B. Hice, Georgia
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Jamie Raskin, Maryland James Comer, Kentucky
Harley Rouda, California Michael Cloud, Texas
Katie Hill, California Bob Gibbs, Ohio
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida Ralph Norman, South Carolina
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Peter Welch, Vermont Chip Roy, Texas
Jackie Speier, California Carol D. Miller, West Virginia
Robin L. Kelly, Illinois Mark E. Green, Tennessee
Mark DeSaulnier, California Kelly Armstrong, North Dakota
Brenda L. Lawrence, Michigan W. Gregory Steube, Florida
Stacey E. Plaskett, Virgin Islands Frank Keller, Pennsylvania
Ro Khanna, California
Jimmy Gomez, California
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York
Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts
Rashida Tlaib, Michigan
David Rapallo, Staff Director
Britteny Jenkins, Subcommittee Staff Director
Amy Stratton, Clerk
Christopher Hixon, Minority Staff Director
Contact Number: 202-225-5051
------
Subcommittee on Environment
Harley Rouda, California, Chairman
Katie Hill, California James Comer, Kentucky, Ranking
Rashida Tlaib, Michigan Minority Member
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Paul Gosar, Arizona
Jackie Speier, California Bob Gibbs, Ohio
Jimmy Gomez, California Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Kelly Armstrong, North Dakota
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on September 16, 2019............................... 1
Witnesses
Dr. Delores Leonard, Advocate
Oral Statement............................................... 6
Ms. Nayyirah Shariff, Director, Flint Rising
Oral Statement............................................... 8
Dr. Paul Mohai, School or Environment and Sustainability, on
behalf of University of Michigan
Oral Statement............................................... 10
Mr. Nick Leonard, Executive Director, Great Lakes Environmental
Law Center
Oral Statement............................................... 11
Ms. Emma Lockridge, Climate and Environmental Justice Organizer,
Michigan United
Oral Statement............................................... 13
Written opening statements and the witnesses' written statements
are available on the U.S. House of Representatives Repository
at: https://docs.house.gov.
INDEX OF DOCUMENTS
----------
The documents entered into the record during this hearing are
listed below are available at: https://docs.house.gov.
* National Education Association (NEA) Written
Statementsubmission for the record.
ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE:
EXPLORING INEQUITIES IN
AIR AND WATER QUALITY
IN MICHIGAN
----------
Monday, September 16, 2019
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Environment,
Committee on Oversight and Reform,
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:07 p.m., in
the Gymnasium, 2260 S. Fort Street, Detroit, MI, Hon. Harley
Rouda presiding.
Present: Representatives Rouda and Tlaib.
Ms. Tlaib. So, welcome. Welcome to how we are trying, as
two new members to Congress, Chairman Rouda and I, we really
believe in how we need to bring Congress to the neighborhoods,
to the communities impacted by a lot of the issues that we see
every single day, making sure you are connected to Congress and
making sure that your real-life stories, the human impact of
really the policies that we try to debate and try to push
forward needs to be connected to the people at home. This is
our opportunity to do that, to bring you to the table. So I
want to thank all of you so much for being here.
I also want to thank the incredible team at Kemeny
Recreation Center. Give them a round of applause for opening up
this space.
[Applause.]
Ms. Tlaib. Also, the team at Detroit Parks and Recreation,
the staff, thank you so much.
I also want to thank Drs. Leonard and Mohai. Did I get it?
Thank you. Thank you for being patient with me.
They did a toxic tour for both of us, and Congresswoman
Debbie Dingell was with us this morning. So not only did we
just want to have a hearing here, we also wanted to show them
the living conditions that you all have every single day. We
went by AK Steel, Marathon Refinery, and a number of the other
industries around the community, so they got to see, again, the
impact on your lives and what it looks like on the ground.
All of you are now going to see, right here to my right,
Emma Lockridge, who has been documenting. She lives right here
in the community and has been documenting the human impact of
living near high-polluting industry. So I want to thank her so
much for sharing her photography here.
Thank you, Emma.
[Applause.]
Ms. Tlaib. So, you all know I was born and raised here, and
I really did think that smell was normal. No, I really thought
that smell was normal, the number of trucks in my neighborhood
was normal, the fact that when I played outside and came in I
smelled like rotten eggs, that that was somehow normal. So it
was really important when I was first elected and as I got into
office that I was fighting for the right to breathe clean air,
the right to access clean water.
So today I am hoping, with the incredible people that you
see at the table that we all have been working with for
almost--some have been doing this work for 40 years, Dr.
Leonard. Thank you so much, Dr. Leonard, for everything you
have been doing for our community.
[Applause.]
Ms. Tlaib. Some have been at the front line of really
trying to show what doing nothing looks like. I can tell you
that having the legal expertise of Nick Leonard and [his]
trying to help us really shows that there is technology, there
is science, there is a way of living near industry in a way
that is humane.
As many folks are here, we also know we have local elected
folks that I asked Chairman Rouda if I could recognize. We have
State Representative Tyrone Carter here. Thank you so much for
being here.
[Applause.]
Ms. Tlaib. Senator Betty Jean Alexander, thank you so much.
[Applause.]
Ms. Tlaib. Trustee Linda Jackson from Redford Township.
[Applause.]
Ms. Tlaib. We also had Councilwoman Raquel Castaneda-Lopez,
who spent some time with us here before she had to leave. I
want to thank her so much for coming and talking to some of us
here.
But thank you, thank you all deeply for being here and for
wanting to participate in trying to make our community even
better in fighting for clean air and clean water. Thank you
again, Chairman.
Chairman Cummings, who is not here, the Chair of our House
Oversight Committee, has been an incredible mentor. He did not
shy away from giving two new Members of Congress the rein on
the Subcommittee on Environment, and I am so, so pleased to be
serving with Chairman Rouda right now. He has been one of the
key champions on PFAS contamination in our country and has not
backed down.
[Applause.]
Ms. Tlaib. And you all know, PFAS is not a rural issue. It
is happening right here in our backyard, at Melvindale, and now
they even found it in Southwest Detroit, in the Delray
neighborhood. So we have to be at the forefront again in
holding these corporations accountable.
Thank you so much, Chairman, and welcome.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. Thank you, Vice Chair. It is a privilege to be
here in Detroit this afternoon with you. This is an official
congressional hearing, and I am going to open it up in just a
minute. But I did want to share with you, as an official
congressional meeting, we do things a little bit differently. I
will do an opening statement, then Vice Chair Tlaib will do one
as well, and then we will recognize the witnesses and they will
have five minutes each to do an opening statement, and then we
will have the opportunity to ask questions.
But because I am the Chair, and with the permission of Vice
Chair Tlaib, I asked if it was okay if we would afford an
opportunity to you to ask some questions as well, and we plan
to do that. We have some index cards that will be available. I
know that some members of Vice Chair Tlaib's staff are holding
their hands up in a few places. So if you would like a card at
some point, maybe just step to the side and you will find
someone and you can write a question, and then we will get it
to staff to take a look. We will not have time for a lot, but
we will have time for a few.
So let me get situated here, make sure I have that situated
correctly, and the committee will come to order.
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a
recess of the committee at any time.
This subcommittee is here to examine environmental justice
issues in Michigan.
I now recognize myself for five minutes to give an opening
statement.
As I said, I am honored to be here in Detroit today with my
colleague, Vice Chairwoman Rashida Tlaib, who has been a
dedicated leader on environmental issues in our subcommittee.
It is a privilege to be able to visit her district and see
firsthand, as we did this morning, how hard she has been
working on behalf of the people of Detroit, and I look forward
to continuing to work with her to ensure equal access
throughout this country to basic human rights and to hear about
what we in Congress can do to help make and achieve this
realistic goal.
Because the idea of basic human rights is, in essence, what
this hearing is about, the right of every American to feel safe
when we walk outside or turn on our faucets, safe from air
pollutants that make us cough or gag, that give us emphysema
and aggravate our asthma, safe from toxic chemicals and
bacteria that jeopardize our children's brain development and
weaken their immune systems. This safety is not and should
never be contingent upon where we live, the color of our skin,
our income bracket, our party affiliation, or any other
superficial differences that needlessly divide us.
It makes me heartsick that the people of Detroit and Flint
have been living without their basic rights and that they have
lost trust in elected officials. Earning their trust back won't
be easy, but we in Congress are determined to make sure the
reality of life in America lives up to the promise of America,
the foundational promise that all people are created equal and
all are equally deserving of a fair shot in life.
Let me read you some statistics from the most recent
Detroit Community Health Assessment, released last year by the
Detroit Health Department. Thirty-eight percent of Detroit
residents live in poverty, the highest percentage of any major
U.S. city. The rate of infant mortality in Detroit is twice the
rate of the state of Michigan. Detroit residents' life
expectancy is lower than the statewide average in nearly every
neighborhood, and the rate of emergency room visits in Detroit
is nearly twice that of the rest of the state. Nine percent of
children in Detroit have elevated levels of lead in their blood
compared with four percent statewide.
Other reports tell us that over eight years, water and
sewer costs in the city of Detroit have risen steadily, and
already-struggling low-income residents are paying
approximately 10 percent of their monthly income on water
bills. Water service has been shut off for many households in
the city. Five years after public officials made the decision
to switch its water supply, the city of Flint has still not
fully recovered. Flint's mayor has still not declared the
city's water safe to drink, and city residents are paying money
they can't afford for bottled water because they cannot trust
the assurances that the crisis is over.
We in Congress are working to demand accountability for the
tragedy in Flint, and we want to ensure a crisis of this
magnitude never happens again and that we have safe drinking
water not just in Detroit, not just in Flint, but throughout
Michigan and our great country.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. We as policymakers need to understand that when
communities don't have clean air or access to clean water, that
affects every aspect of life. Property values decrease,
population decreases, people get sicker, the quality of
sanitation declines. One disparity quickly leads to others, and
because of this, in the year 2019 we see the kind of stark
inequalities that shake the foundations of our democracy. This
cannot stand.
Fundamentally we are here today not just to talk about
clean air and clean water and equal access to our natural
resources; we are here to remind ourselves what kind of country
we want to be. It has been more than 50 years since Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. spoke of the existence of two Americas, and it
remains just as true now as it was then, that injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
I hope that the testimony we hear today will be a call to
action for all of us to demand a version of America in which we
can all drink, breathe, and live freely, and I believe that day
will come. Thank you.
I now invite the subcommittee's Vice Chair, Ms. Tlaib, to
give a five-minute opening statement.
Ms. Tlaib. Thank you so much, Chairman.
I am honored to bring Congress to the original Southwest
Detroit in the zip code of 48217, where I have spent countless
hours alongside community activists and experts fighting for
the right to breathe clean air and drink clean water. It is so
incredibly wonderful to see many of my friends on the panel
today and to elevate the voices of our community on a national
stage.
We hear so much testimony from so many experts in D.C., but
often what is missing is that connection to the lived
experience. So we are here today in Michigan's most polluted
zip code, a resilient zip code, to hear from a family, a family
of environmental warriors who have fought for our public health
in the streets and in the legislature and in the courts. Thank
you all for being here today to educate the U.S. Congress on
the challenges we face here in Michigan.
I am going to focus today on two truths: we have a right to
breathe clean air, and water is a human right. I have been in
this fight for environmental justice for a long time. Growing
up, I did think that smell was normal from industrial
pollution. Entire generations grow up in sacrifice zones where
our air and water is polluted by wealthy corporations for
profit, and we are expected to accept that.
I took my fellow congressional members on the toxic tour
this morning because I needed them to smell what my community
smells every day and what they feel - what my community feels -
every single day. Just last week, residents in the neighborhood
surrounding this field hearing were exposed to yet another gas
leak from Marathon plant. They are still searching for answers.
What was released? Is it safe to breathe the air? It is, sadly,
a familiar story for this community.
Marathon, like so many other corporate polluters, likely
won't face any meaningful consequences, and this will continue
happening. They have just written off these leaks as a cost of
doing business. But we know that our communities, our
neighbors, and our families are so much more important than
corporate profit.
We have a right to breathe clean air, so we will never stop
organizing to get it.
Water is a human right, and so we are going to ensure that
every single person has access to clean water.
We take on these big fights because we don't have any other
alternative. When people take to the streets to protest for
environmental justice, they are standing up for their lives,
their right to live.
Thank you all so much for being here at this critically
important hearing, and I can't wait to hear from our community
experts.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Rouda. Let's thank Chairwoman Tlaib again for bringing
us all together. We really appreciate your efforts.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. At this time, I would like to recognize our
witnesses. We have Dr. Dolores Leonard, an advocate. I thank
you again for taking the time to take myself and many others
from our delegation around the city and the affected areas to
better understand the immense challenges for the community.
Ms. Shariff, the Director of Flint Rising; thank you as
well.
Dr. Mohai, School of Environment and Sustainability from
the University of Michigan. I am a Buckeye, but this shows that
we can still work together across old differences.
Nick Leonard, Executive Director of Great Lakes
Environmental Law Center.
And Ms. Lockridge, the climate and environmental justice
organizer for Michigan United.
I would ask all of you to please stand and raise your right
hand.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Thank you. Please be seated.
Let the record show that the witnesses answered in the
affirmative.
The microphones are sensitive, so if you could please speak
directly into them.
Without objection, your written statements will be made a
part of the record.
With that, Dr. Leonard, you are recognized to start for
five minutes of your oral presentation of your testimony.
STATEMENT OF DOLORES LEONARD, ED.D., ADVOCATE
Dr. Leonard. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I was required to submit
my comments last week, but I plan to deviate, with your
permission.
Mr. Rouda. Absolutely. And if you would please pull the
microphone very close to you.
Dr. Leonard. Better?
Mr. Rouda. I think so. Based on the nods in the audience, I
think that is correct.
Dr. Leonard. Thank you. Because I am a former classroom
teacher and I become winded, I am going to give my conclusion
first.
Along the way, I have come to understand that it is the
political climate, elected officials, and the economic
environment--industries, companies, and stockholders--that
dictate the guidelines written for environmental protection for
citizens. I understand, in many cases, it is the elected
politicians who, relying upon campaign financing from lobbyists
of the very companies emitting in my community, write laws
under which I must live while they may not understand fully the
ramifications of their writings. I also recognize that, in many
cases, it is the lobbyists who write the environmental laws
that are given to the Environmental Protection Agency to
implement, which are given to states to enforce.
I am always mindful of Alan Greenspan's comments when he
explained the concept of collateral damage, clearly describing
my community, collateral damage.
I will give you two what I call lasting and traumatic
personal experiences of mine.
On Monday, August 3, 1998, at approximately 3:15 p.m.,
there was an explosion in my home. I was sitting at my kitchen
glass table that shook. I ran out of the house screaming. There
was no one outside. All of this was very strange and terrifying
for me. Everyone was at work. Having lived through two Ford
Motor Company explosions a few years back, I knew what an
explosion sounded like and what it felt like, because each time
of the Ford explosions I had been in my basement. I live
approximately eight miles from that Ford Motor Company complex.
It took me approximately one year to determine why every
weekday between 3:15 and 3:45 p.m., and most Saturdays at 12
noon, the explosion would occur. The explosions were coming
from the Detroit Salt Company dynamiting for salt.
A community resident shared a copy of a contract between
the city of Detroit and the Detroit Salt Company that permitted
removal of salt underground between the streets and the alleys.
I ask you, what sits between the streets and the alleys? Our
homes. Our ceilings and walls were cracked. Pictures fell off
the walls. Driveways were cracked. The foundation of many homes
was destroyed. Of course, we had nothing to prove before and
after in terms of pictures.
The community as a body appeared before the city of Detroit
Council to protest. While the amount of dynamite used appeared
to be less powerful, the extractions continued for
approximately two to three more years.
Years before moving to the Delray area, that is what I last
heard where they were.
It was August 3, 1998 that I officially became an
environmentalist, and I have brought with me today a map in the
corner there that depicts my community, showing the surrounding
industry.
Another illustration. Approximately five to 10 years ago, I
unexpectedly drove into a mist, a vapor. I entered the mist not
realizing while driving that it was there. It began at the
number 50 Marathon Refinery storage tank and continued until I
exited on the other side of the viaduct on Shafer and at the
Dicks Road street. My window was down. The kerosene odor came
into the car. I could not see to drive forward, nor to turn
around and get out of the situation. I could only creep along
slowly, terrified I might hit another driver or be hit by a
driver. That was an extremely frightening experience.
Whenever Marathon has a chemical release, the company
releases a statement that always states the public need not be
concerned as there was no health harm. Never do they discuss
the psychological stress the citizens living in the area
endure.
The 48217 zip code community is a small enclave that is a
part of the city of Detroit.
Is that a stop? Oh, I am looking at the red.
The 48217 zip code community is a small enclave that is a
part of the city of Detroit, but few people realize this
community exists because of its location. The average income is
below $30,000. Education level, generally high school
graduation. Census 2010 population data for 48217 was 8,210
people. The stated black or African American population was
6,625, or 80.7 percent. Total occupied housing units, 3,216 or
80.9 percent. Census tracts 5248, 5247, and 5245.
In March 2016, Zoe Schlanger wrote a Newsweek article,
``Detroit Makes You Sick.'' She states, ``There is something
like 52 sites of heavy industry in a tiny little three-mile
area in River Rouge, Ecorse, Melvindale, and the 48217 area.''
The article is very explicit in describing the living and
health conditions caused by pollution.
In a March 29, 2016 article written by Schlanger and that
appears as a website article, ``Michigan's Air Pollution
Problem Is Much Bigger Than The Water In Flint,'' this article
describes a parent having an asthma attack. And she was asked,
why do you stay here? Why not move? Her response was, ``Because
of low rent.''
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, now known as
Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy--EGLE--has no choice but
to issue operating permits if the application documentation
presented by various industries meets all necessary emission
guidelines. However, what is not being considered and omitted
in permitting is the cumulative emission of all these
industries within the area who are emitting the same chemical.
In other words, what I am saying is if Company A is emitting,
Company B is emitting, Company C is emitting, MDEQ EGLE does
not add all of that together. They look at each individual
company and they issue a permit. What is impacting my community
is when all of these, this aggregate comes together, and that
is what impacts the health and has a psychological impact on my
community. That is what I am trying to say. This is a life and
death situation.
[Applause.]
Dr. Leonard. We were fortunate in 48217 to work with MDEQ,
and we do have a neighborhood air monitoring station that sits
behind New Mount Herman Church.
I have a lot to say, and I become very frustrated when I
begin talking, and I think I should stop.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you, Dr. Leonard.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. The Chair now recognizes Ms. Shariff for five
minutes of oral testimony.
STATEMENT OF NAYYIRAH SHARIFF, DIRECTOR, FLINT RISING
Ms. Shariff. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Representative Tlaib.
The Flint water crisis is an example of what happens when
the needs of profit and industry are deemed more important than
the needs of the people. Flint residents lost their local
democratic rights, and their local elected officials had their
powers usurped due to the imposition of Michigan's emergency
manager law. Supposed debt in majority black-and brown-
populated school districts and municipalities, in addition to
assets that could be privatized, were the driving motivator for
the communities who would lose their democracy. Since the
passage of the emergency manager law in March 2011, no majority
white community within the state of Michigan has been taken
over by the state and lost their democracy.
My foray into the fight for clean water was embedded in the
larger fight for the restoration of democracy in Flint. At the
time of the switch, I was a member of the Flint Democracy
Defense League, a grassroots group of Flint residents, some of
whom are seated in the audience--I see you all five years too
long--who came together after Flint went into state
receivership. Immediately after the switch to the Flint River,
the water coming out of my tap was brown, yellow, and/or
smelled like an open sewer. Within a month I was boiling my
water and had a point-of-use Brita filter in the kitchen.
Unfortunately, I was still bathing in unfiltered water. I was
getting rashes and I had what I believed to be cystic acne. We
had ``boil water'' advisories. Our water bills ballooned to the
highest in Genesee County. Little did we know at the time we
were paying one of the highest water and sewer bills in the
country for poisoned water.
Because our group understood the emergency manager law, we
knew we had to force the state to switch us back to a clean
source of water. The fact that your government was the primary
party responsible for the poisoning of a community was nearly
unheard of, and it took a very long, hard, old-fashioned
organizing fight to even get the state to acknowledge that we
had toxic water.
I have worked as a community organizer and racial justice
facilitator for over 15 years. One lesson I took from the work
is the expertise is in the room. Unfortunately, residents were
not in the room when solutions to the Flint water crisis were
crafted. We never wanted to live our lives using bottled water.
Bottled water sends a message that water should be
commoditized. How can there be a price tag for something
essential to human life? In addition, the plastic is sourced
from petrochemicals, which in turn resources the fossil fuel
industry.
These refineries are located primarily in communities of
color. We wanted Medicare For All, but we received non-income
test Medicaid, leaving people over the age of 21 and non-
pregnant adults without health care. We wanted water mains,
internal plumbing, and service lines replaced, but we only
received service line replacement through a settlement
agreement. We wanted people to be held accountable for the
cover-up, but in June of this year the Michigan Attorney
General's Office dropped the charges for the 15 state and local
employees responsible for the Flint water crisis. The state
employees who did not previously resign reported back to work
in July.
If there hasn't been a long-term plan developed to fix
Flint, how can you fix any other community? It is a false
argument that compliance equals safety. Twelve parts per
billion, 15 parts per billion, those numbers are all made up.
The American Medical Association says there is no safe level
for lead. So why don't we have health-based standards at the
EPA? Flint was denied a Federal disaster declaration because of
the Stafford Act. The Flint water crisis didn't occur because
of a tornado, hurricane, or earthquake. It was caused by
environmental racism, white supremacy, patriarchal
decisionmaking, capitalism, and the belief that the needs of a
large corporation like General Motors are more important than
the needs of poor black and brown people who can't afford to
pay $200 to $300 a month for poisoned water.
[Applause.]
Ms. Shariff. The Stafford Act needs to be amended to
include the poisoning of communities through air and water. We
have a registry, but we didn't have a compensation fund to meet
our long-term health care needs. Flint residents never stopped
paying a premium price for poisoned water, and water systems
can charge as much as they want through fees without any
transparency or accountability. High water bills in Flint have
caused families to live without water. We need a Federal
income-based water affordability plan so water is affordable
for all, with shut-off protections for seniors, families, and
children, and individuals who need water for their medical
needs. Finally, we need massive infrastructure investments to
remove these lead pipes once and for all.
It has been over five years since the switch to the Flint
River, 1,970 days to be exact. My life has changed in ways I
couldn't even imagine. My health has gotten worse. One of my
seizures has partially paralyzed my vocal cords and has changed
my voice. I can no longer raise my voice. Even though they are
mostly under control now through the help of medication, I know
that if I did not have a job that offered an affordable,
comprehensive medical plan, I would have to make decisions
between bills and my medication. Fortunately, I also have the
opportunity to travel and tell my organizing story in this
long-haul fight for reparations and justice.
Thank you.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. Thank you, Ms. Shariff.
The Chair now recognizes Dr. Mohai for five minutes of oral
testimony.
STATEMENT OF PAUL MOHAI, PH.D., PH.D., SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENT
AND SUSTAINABILITY, ON BEHALF OF UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Mr. Mohai. Thank you, Congressman Rouda and Congresswoman
Tlaib. Thanks for the opportunity to participate in today's
hearing.
In 1987, the United Church of Christ report, ``Toxic Wastes
and Race in the United States,'' was the first study to examine
the distribution of hazardous waste sites around the Nation. It
found that the concentration of people of color in zip codes
containing hazardous waste facilities was double that in zip
codes without. It also found that the concentration of people
of color in these zip codes was the best predictor of where
such facilities are located, even when controlling for incomes
and property values.
In the late 1980's, I teamed with Professor Bunyan Bryant,
now an emeritus professor at Michigan, to investigate this
issue more closely. Our first endeavor was to see whether other
such studies existed and whether they pointed in the same
direction. At the time, we found over a dozen such studies, all
demonstrating either racial or socioeconomic disparities in the
distribution of environmental hazards of a wide variety, with
race most often the best predictor.
As faculty investigators of the U-of-M's 1990 Detroit area
study, we conducted the first environmental injustice analysis
in the metro area. We determined the locations of respondents
and measured their distances to a wide range of potentially
hazardous sites, including hazardous waste facilities,
Superfund sites, polluting industrial facilities, and others.
We found statistically significant disparities based on the
race and incomes of the respondents, and as with ``Toxic Waste
and Race in the U.S.,'' we found race to be the best predictor.
Also in 1990, Professor Bryant and I organized the Michigan
Conference on Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards.
This was the first conference to bring together academics from
across the U.S. who were studying environmental disparities to
discuss their research and the implications of their findings.
The conference and its proceedings got the attention of the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. After the conference, EPA
Administrator William Reilly invited and met with conference
representatives to talk about our findings and what the agency
could do.
After several meetings, the EPA published a report entitled
``Environmental Equity: Reducing Risks for All Communities.''
This report included an independent review of the evidence and
concluded that environmental inequalities in the U.S. needed to
be addressed, and it offered recommendations. Shortly after the
EPA released its report, the House of Representatives convened
hearings. Over the years, numerous bills have been introduced
in Congress, none of which have been signed into law.
In 1994, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12898
calling on all Federal agencies, not just the EPA, to take into
account the environmental justice consequences of their
decisionmaking.
Over the years I have conducted a number of national-level,
state-level, and metropolitan-level studies of environmental
inequality and disparity. The outcome of these studies have
consistently shown disproportionate environmental burdens in
poor communities and communities of color. At the same time,
this research has expanded into multiple disciplines such as
public health, law, economics, urban planning and others,
showing much the same results.
In the interest of time, please refer to my written
testimony for further details about my research and findings
and those of others.
Despite the considerable amount of research, evidence, and
scholarly writing on the issue of environmental racism and
injustice in the past 30 years, policy development to remedy
the problem has been surprisingly slow. Despite the 1994
executive order, there has been little evidence that actual
progress to improve conditions in impacted communities has been
made. Until the Flint water crisis became an international
story, it was rare to hear environmental disparities and
injustices acknowledged or to hear the terms ``environmental
racism'' and ``environmental justice'' in public discourse.
The Flint water crisis began to change this. In my opinion,
it is the most egregious example of environmental injustice in
the U.S. in my over 30 years of studying this issue. I am not
aware of any environmental bills that have been enacted into
law either in Michigan or nationally. State and national laws
that explicitly address environmental injustice need to be
enacted. They need to be adequately funded and followed up by
relevant regulatory agencies with well-articulated, step-by-
step procedures to make certain these laws are fully
implemented and enforced.
Furthermore, quantitative measures should be developed, and
annual assessments conducted, to determine whether genuine
environmental justice improvements are being made. Until this
happens, I believe most current state and Federal policies will
simply remain declarations of good intentions.
Thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony to the
committee. I look forward to answering any questions you may
have. Thank you.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. Thank you, Dr. Mohai.
The Chair now recognizes Mr. Leonard for five minutes of
oral testimony.
STATEMENT OF NICK LEONARD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GREAT LAKES
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER
Mr. Leonard. Good afternoon, Congressman Rouda and
Congresswoman Tlaib. It is fantastic that you are here to hear
all of us.
In my work as the Executive Director of the Great Lakes
Environmental Law Center, I have worked with residents in
Southwest Detroit and the south end of Dearborn to address air
pollution, residents on the east side of Detroit to address the
expansion of a hazardous waste facility, residents on the east
side of Detroit to close down a trash incinerator, residents
throughout Southeast Michigan that are confronting issues of
drinking water quality and affordability. Through my work with
all of these communities, I have come to deeply understand how
our Federal environmental laws fail to adequately address the
concerns of communities of color and lower income, and today I
am going to talk about that failure and how it can be remedied.
Injustice in law and policy often starts with an absence,
specifically the absence of people of color and lower income in
creating that law or policy. This absence leads to the creation
of laws or policies that ignore the concerns of people of color
and lower income, and this ignorance, particularly if left
unremedied for long periods of time, as has happened here,
leads many people of color to logically and correctly conclude
that while our environmental laws adequately protect whiter and
more affluent communities, they fail to protect communities of
color.
The environmental injustices here in Southeast Michigan are
indicative of similar problems in communities of color across
the country. Numerous studies have found that communities of
color and lower income are disproportionately exposed to higher
levels of air pollution when compared to whiter, more affluent
communities. Our investor-owned electric utility, DTE, is
proposing to increase residential rates by nine percent and is
failing to provide low-income residents with access to
renewable energy, ensuring that such communities will be locked
into the fossil fuel economy that is harming their health.
Hazardous waste facilities such as U.S. Ecology's facility
in Detroit are overwhelmingly located in communities of color
and lower income. Increasing rates of water service are forcing
low-income residents in Southeast Michigan to pay 10 to 20
percent of their household income on water bills. Due to these
unaffordable rates, 84 percent of these residents are cutting
back on monthly expenses for things such as food, medicine, and
rent, and 51 percent are switching off paying their energy
bills and their water bills on a month-to-month basis.
How has this been allowed to happen? In the absence of
Federal requirements, many states, including Michigan, have
failed to take action to address these issues and the
environmental concerns of people of color. Today in Detroit's
communities of color, gas-fired power plants are being built,
hazardous waste facilities are being expanded. And because the
concerns of these communities of color are not reflected in the
law and they are not required to be addressed, our
environmental agencies that decide whether to allow these
projects to move forward must, in accordance with that law,
ignore the concerns of people of color. Put another way, the
law ignores people of color, and as a result the agencies in
charge of administering them do as well.
In regards to drinking water, the Federal Government's role
has largely been twofold, regulating the quality of water and
financing drinking water infrastructure improvements through
state revolving fund programs. However, Federal funds dedicated
to drinking water infrastructure improvements are well short of
the need. EPA has estimated that Congress needs to spend 20
times the amount appropriated in 2019 over the next 20 years to
ensure that all Americans have safe drinking water.
Given the shortfall in Federal funding, many public water
suppliers are increasing water rates to unaffordable levels.
However, nothing in Federal law directly addresses the existing
and ever-growing water affordability crisis that is
predominantly impacting communities of color and lower income
and that are sure to get worse in the coming years.
The most significant Federal law that does address the
environmental concerns of communities of color is Title 6 of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits state
environmental agencies from discriminating on the basis of
race, color, and national origin. However, the U.S. Supreme
Court has interpreted the law to only prohibit intentional
discrimination by state agencies and not activities that have a
disparate impact on communities of color, essentially
nullifying that requirement.
The U.S. EPA has adopted Title 6 regulations that prohibit
state agencies from activities that have a discriminatory
affect regardless of intent. Theoretically, residents can
submit a Title 6 complaint to the U.S. EPA to address
violations of EPA's non-discrimination regulations. However,
the EPA's Title 6 complaint process has a well-documented
history of mismanagement, making it largely ineffectual for
communities of color.
So how is this to be remedied? I provided you with a
further list of written recommendations. But to summarize, at a
minimum the EPA should diligently administer its existing
regulations prohibiting states from activities that have a
disparate impact on communities of color. Additionally, as has
been shared by numerous people on this panel, we need more just
environmental laws and policies that are developed in
partnership with communities of color and lower income and that
adequately address the unique environmental issues that these
communities face on a day-to-day basis.
Thank you very much.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. Thank you, Mr. Leonard.
The Chair now recognizes Ms. Lockridge for five minutes of
oral testimony.
STATEMENT OF EMMA LOCKRIDGE, CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
ORGANIZER, MICHIGAN UNITED
Ms. Lockridge. Thank you so much. Thank you, Congressman
Rouda and Chairman Tlaib, for all the work you have done here
assisting us over the years. I would like to just acknowledge
some of our frontline fighters, environmental fighters: Theresa
Landrum sitting here, Vincent Martin and Tyrone Carter, and
others. I stand on their shoulders. I was amazed over the years
some of the impactful work they have done in this community.
I want you just to imagine, if you will, being asleep at
3:30 in the morning, and all of a sudden you start coughing,
you get choked. Then your own coughing wakes you up, and you
don't have a cold. Then your nose alerts you to the fact that
there are chemicals in your bedroom and you can't breathe, and
they smell toxic, and they are choking you. These are the
emissions that we have experienced as an ongoing presence in
our homes from Marathon Petroleum Corporation over the years.
What I have done personally for myself is, when I have a
chance at the doctor's office, I grab a mask and I put it over
my nose, and then I grab pillows and I put them over my head,
and then I put the covers over my head and I try to get a few
winks of sleep. I have neighbors who have told me what they do
is run to the kitchen, get some bleach, go to the basement,
pour it down the drain, hoping that will help the odor subside.
This is no way to live, and we have had this problem, and
we have complained about this problem over the years.
Also, what is important to know is that when we talk about
environmental racism, it started for us the moment our parents
signed the deeds to our homes. This goes back to the 1950's,
and even before that, when our parents moved here from the
south, escaping Jim Crow and the crushing racism down there,
only to realize they had landed up south. And when they moved
into these communities, they were restricted from moving
wherever they wanted to. They were forced to live near
refineries. They were forced to live near polluting rivers.
They were forced to live near the company DTE Energy, the
largest S02 producer in this area. They were forced to live
near these facilities. They were forced to be necklaced by
steel mills, and they didn't know. They thought they were
giving us a better life, but what they were doing was
shortening our lives when they moved here.
I live--turn out of the parking lot, turn left, and I live
directly across the street from Marathon Petroleum. That is
where our subdivision is. Some people call it the North Boynton
community. Some people call it the Jeffries community, where
our school used to be. Some people call it The Hole. All of our
streets run right into a spur of the Rouge River, and that is
where we dead-end, and we are indeed trapped in a hole.
But one of the worst things going on right now, and it is
still present in our subdivision, is that five acres where our
former school existed, Jeffries, where I attended elementary
school from kindergarten to the sixth grade, is a brown field.
It is a brown field. It is toxic. No one, children in
particular, are supposed to play or be on lead. I mean, if you
reach 600 parts per million, that triggers danger signs.
That field has 13,000 parts per million of toxins and
arsenic, right in the middle of our subdivision, one block from
my house. There is not, to this day, one sign over there that
says ``Toxic Field.'' Kids still go over there in the summer
and play. We are still being poisoned. Not one house has ever
been tested across the street from this facility, and it is a
brown field.
I contacted the EPA. I contacted the state. They did
nothing. Why? Because we are black. They do nothing. They had a
similar field like that in Lavonia, fixed it, and they are out
there playing soccer on it now. But we are black, so we get a
different response.
What does this all mean for us, to be in this toxic
environment? It means, for me, kidney failure. I had to have a
kidney transplant. Thank God my nephew donated to me 12 years
ago. That is why I am able to sit here. Can we give Lorenzo
Robeson a round of applause?
[Applause.]
Ms. Lockridge. That means my next-door neighbor now is on
dialysis. That means my neighbor across the street died on
dialysis. That means my handyman cutting the grass today who
lives around the block from me is on dialysis. That means my
precious sister Paula, who was one of the most athletic people
I have ever met, who played on that toxic field with us, died
of kidney failure before she reached the age of 50. That means
I have been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I have
cancer, like so many people out here. That means I have to use
an asthma inhaler. That means my precious mother died, had
COPD. My brother died of lung cancer. Yes, he smoked
cigarettes, but lung cancer. A lot of us smoked. That means my
dad died of cancer, cancer everywhere.
We are a sick community. That is what that means.
So I am just glad that when they had the release over at
Marathon the other day, I was grateful I wasn't home, not
because I am afraid, because I don't live on fear. I am a woman
of faith, okay?
[Applause.]
Ms. Lockridge. I am never afraid of anything. But I would
have been out there with my camera, just like I have done over
these years, documenting that. I would have had firsthand
photographs, because no matter what a company says, I will have
the documents to show what the true story is. But one of my
neighbors came over and gave me the pictures anyway because now
they know this is what they are supposed to do.
So environmental racism has had a huge impact on our lives,
not just health, and when I say these health situations, I am
talking about people I know, not just me. Theresa Landrew
sitting right there has had to deal with cancer. I am not
talking about just me. I am talking about just us, Baby Boomers
who grew up in this community.
So on top of our health, we have lost our wealth. My
parents paid $8,000 for a four-bedroom home in the 1950's, and
it is worth about $8,000 right now. So something tells you
something is horribly wrong right here.
So what I want to say is there are some people here who
want to stay here, and I understand that. We have communal
ties. It has always been a very strong community, very loving
people. We watch out for one another. We grew up in the Motown
era, dancing under the streetlights and singing. But you know
what? For me, time is up. I want out of here, because
everything around me is just too toxic with DTE Energy.
With this list, my house, I discovered--I met with Dr.
Mohai this spring, and we discovered my house is in the center
of all those dots. So it is time to go.
I am going to leave you with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., and this is what Dr. King said. He said, ``It really
boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all
caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a
single garment of destiny,'' a single garment of destiny.
``Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.''
In other words, there is no wall around air pollution. What
impacts us today, the canaries in the climate change cave--that
is who we are--what impacts us today reaches everyone at some
point. So we need to earnestly work together to fix this. Our
legislators, policymakers, environmental groups, industry, we
need to sit at the table with them to work through this, and
everyone who is concerned who would like to wake up breathing
clean air, drinking clean water, I do this work for the babies.
That is why I put them right in the center of all those
pictures over there.
Time is up for me. My life is going to be shortened. I
already know that. But you know what? We still have time to
protect our children. Thank you.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. Thank you, Ms. Lockridge.
And thank you to all of the members on our witness panel.
At this time I am going to pass the microphone to Vice
Chair Tlaib to take five minutes of questions.
Ms. Tlaib. Thank you so much, Chairman.
I do want to take a moment because this is my neighborhood,
and I don't want to not recognize some elected folks. But I do
want to acknowledge that our Wayne County Commissioner, Iona
Vargas, just walked into the hearing--thank you so much for
being here--as well as city of Ecorse Councilman Divante
Charizard, and our Dearborn Heights Councilwoman, Lisa Hicks
Clayton. Thank you.
The environmental injustice affects all of Wayne County,
just to be very clear. The EPA says that we have unsafe levels
of sulfur dioxide, yet they just closed, as you all know, the
EPA office that is closest to us, Eagle, where our emergency
response teams were based out of. Now they moved them to Ann
Arbor. Yes.
So you all know that we still have a huge fight on our
hands, and we need to get our EPA office back into Wayne
County. I have been working with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell
to try to fight that, but we all need to stand up together and
get our inspectors closer to our homes.
We are also here today because, as Emma Lockridge said, I
mean, this is the sacrifice zone, right? Wayne County
especially, in all corners of the district, from AK Steel--I
think they outputted 700 percent above their air permit, which
is right here in our backyard--to Marathon Oil Refinery, which
has been cited by the state of Michigan at least 13 times in
the past six years for violations of its air permit and the
Clean Air Act.
Now, you all hear me saying this. This is the impact. It
releases toxic chemicals that are known to cause respiratory
illnesses, cancer, and birth defects. We literally had toxic
gas leaks from Marathon last week, as you all know, which
caused them to evacuate the plant, but not our neighborhoods.
And it isn't just this neighborhood. Communities on the
east side near the Chrysler plant are exposed to some of the
worst air pollution in the state of Michigan. And neighbors
surrounding the U.S. Ecology facility have been fighting
against its expansion for years.
So this is a Wayne County effort. The whole state is
impacted by this.
Ms. Lockridge, what are cumulative impacts, and how is the
law's failure to consider them hurting our communities?
Ms. Lockridge. Cumulative impacts are the red dots behind
you. The short explanation for what are cumulative impacts, it
is death. It is early death. It is illness. It means that--and
it is really unbelievable, and this is where we would really
like help from the national level because we have over nearly 7
million people in this country living in the shadow of oil
refineries, but there are also people living near pig farms.
There are people who are living near steel mills, all types of
things that need to be measured with other things going on
around them. So cumulative impacts, it is, like, what is it? It
is this thing that causes all of this chronic illness.
I have my dear friend Denise sitting here in the audience
today. She moved back into the community a very healthy person
about five years ago, and now she has chronic respiratory
problems, and she has other illnesses that I won't say, but
they are all related to moving back into this community.
It means fear. I don't mean the kind of fear that this
causes over here, but there is a dis-ease, if you will. If you
wonder, when that siren goes off, which we have heard four
times over the past year, is it the end, we don't want to
become a Bhopal caused by one of these corporations around here
where we are literally incinerated in our homes. We live too
close to too many things that can go wrong. We have a hydrogen
facility in this region that could blow.
So that is what it causes, and it causes--you know, people
have houses--most of us, this is a generational community. Many
of us inherited the homes that our parents so earnestly worked
hard for. To sit there in a worthless house, or to sit there
when you see maybe good things happening for other communities,
it hurts you to the core because you know that your life is
being devalued. That is really the bottom line of this. From
the 400th anniversary of enslavement in this country, we are
still not fully recognized as full human beings, right? So when
you are not recognized, you can do anything to an animal that
you would not do to your cousin or your nephew or your niece.
That is what these cumulative impacts mean.
One thing I will tell you for sure, because Marathon has
said many, many times that their three percent--they have a
pie. We are three percent of all the pollution in this area.
Think about that for a second. If they are only three percent
and we go through all of this, and there is 97 percent worse, I
mean, we are totally doomed.
So we need to jump in and fix all of this as soon as
possible.
Ms. Tlaib. Thank you.
Professor Mohai, Dr. Mohai, and Mr. Nick Leonard can also
answer. What does it look like if you go through an air permit
process, say Marathon or AK Steel? What does it look like if
you require them to do a cumulative impact analysis that they
would pay for in regards to applying for their permit? What
does that mean if it is implemented tomorrow? I mean, I
introduced stuff on the state level. But if, on the national
level, if we were to do it this way, to say you have to look at
cumulative impacts, all of the air permits together, what is
the impact together versus looking at them individually as
outputs?
Mr. Mohai. Well, let me begin by saying that part of the
current problem we have in terms of lack of adequate policy is
we do tend to evaluate sources of pollution one at a time
without taking into account what is already there. Communities
that are already overburdened, we can't simply pretend that a
new pollution source will have no greater harm than if we were
in a community with a lot less.
I think I am going to defer to Nick Leonard about the other
part.
Mr. Leonard. How I often talk about cumulative impacts is
how our air permitting system works. It works pollutant by
pollutant, facility by facility, and that is the original sin
of our Clean Air Act, which I should point out was created in
1970, long before environmental justice arose as a movement in
the late 1980's and moving into 1990.
So what that means functionally is that when somebody goes
to get a permit, when a company like AK Steel goes to get a
permit, or when Marathon goes to get a permit, they can point
to their emissions and say we by ourselves aren't causing air
pollution levels that are going to be unsafe or violating any
environmental standards.
The problem is our law doesn't capture this problem. It
would work adequately if all air pollution sources were
equitably distributed across the population. But here what we
have is essential problems where we have clusters of air
pollution sources in low-income communities of color, and that
problem is just completely unaddressed.
So what would it look like? It would basically flip our air
pollution laws to finally address the concerns of low-income
communities of color, and in a lot of ways it makes sense. Air
pollution--if you have an unsafe level of air pollution - it
exists whether it is caused by one company or other companies.
To adequately address this problem, you need to basically force
companies to look at all of the level of air pollution in a
community to determine if their emissions are going to be
contributing to unsafe levels of air pollution in that
neighborhood.
Mr. Rouda. Thanks. I now recognize myself.
Ms. Shariff, you talked a lot about I think it is five
years now that we have been dealing with the Flint water
crisis. Obviously, it went on for decades and decades and
decades prior thereto. Can you expound a little bit on what you
have suggested that the Federal Government can do to address
the issue in Flint that really has repercussions well beyond
Flint?
Ms. Shariff. One of the things that I would like to expound
on a little bit more is this idea of Medicare For All. In the
2009 Affordable Care Act, Senator Max Baucus inserted a clause
in the ACA that covered the workers in communities in Libby,
Montana. They were exposed through a vermiculate mine to
airborne asbestos from a mine that was owned by the WR Grace
Company, and you had the community suffering and workers
suffering from mesothelioma, asbestosis, and other
environmental and health issues.
Under that clause, it was immediate. It was Medicare For
All, so you did not have to be 65 and older, and it was a
national alert that was put out, like, hey, if you lived in
this community, this is long-term healthcare. That is something
that needs to happen immediately in Flint and in other
communities that are suffering from environmental justice
issues.
So I really hope that this gets adopted because it is
something--what is happening now in Flint, we have kind of an
expanded Medicaid, and that in itself is very, I would say,
kind of prison-y, because you are locked within the state of
Michigan. You can't move. You are kind of trapped. You are free
to access this sort of healthcare, which is not really all that
great because you are within the Medicaid system. So that has
its own host of issues where you can't go to a private health
provider, you have to go to clinics, you are waiting two to
three hours, you are getting abused, and so you have a lot of
people who don't even want to expose themselves to being
mistreated in the healthcare system. But you are kind of stuck
because you may not have the money to even utilize and access
healthcare.
Mr. Rouda. Mr. Leonard, this is a question for you, and it
plays on what I just asked Ms. Shariff, and that is, Ms.
Shariff, what you were talking about is really addressing the
unfortunate outcomes of environmental injustice. Mr. Leonard,
can you talk about what the Federal Government can do to help
prevent environmental injustice from even occurring, as well as
what we can do on the back end as well?
Mr. Leonard. Of course. So, I think the place to start is
developing laws and policies that specifically address the
unique environmental issues that are confronting low-income
communities and communities of color. So I think it is
important to recognize that there are multiple different
environmental concerns that communities of color have. We
talked a bit about air quality, and so what that looks like is
changes to the Clean Air Act to specifically address the
concerns that we are hearing about today, to address cumulative
impacts. When we are talking about drinking water quality, we
are talking about revisions to the copper rule that exists
under the Safe Drinking Water Act to make sure that crisis
doesn't occur in other cities the way it was allowed to occur
in Flint.
But in addition to just talking about changes to laws and
regulations and things like that, I think it is also important
to mention the process by which those changes occur. In my
testimony I talked about how environmental injustice was
allowed to happen largely because communities of color and low
income weren't there when those environmental laws were
created, and I think that is the root of the problem.
So not only do there have to be changes to our laws and
regulations to address those concerns, but they have to be
changes that are developed basically in partnership with those
communities in order to ensure that they are real solutions,
not fake solutions that won't address the root of the problem.
Mr. Rouda. As we all know right now, this is a very
difficult time with the President and the current
administration not meeting their obligations under the EPA; in
fact, even rolling back regulations through administrative
action. So as much as we need the EPA now more than ever to
step forward and help out, what do you believe our prospects
are in getting the EPA to do anything with the current
administration and the current president?
Mr. Leonard. Well, I am not going to sugar coat it. Things
are rough under the current administration, but I think it is
also important to note that things--I mentioned Title 6 of the
Civil Rights Act and the mis-administration of that program.
That has occurred under both Republican and Democratic
administrations. That has occurred throughout the years where
essentially we have had complaints of discrimination submitted
by communities such as Flint, other environmental justice
communities throughout the United States basically saying we
are being impacted by what we think is a discriminatory
decision by our state agency, we need a full investigation, we
need help, and the EPA hasn't been there for those communities
throughout the years.
So it is important--a lot of these solutions are long-term
strategies, and I don't anticipate that they will be there
tomorrow or the next day. What I do think is necessary is
diligent work to continue to move forward toward a variety of
solutions that center on those communities of color and low
income.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you.
One of the honors for both Vice Chair Tlaib and myself is
to work under the chairmanship of Elijah Cummings. The
Oversight Committee, even though we have a president and an
administration who are thumbing their noses at their
obligations under the EPA and so many other areas, we have a
Chair in Elijah Cummings who is doing everything he can with
the committee's support to hold them accountable, and we will
continue to do that, and I am thrilled to be with him.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. I will tell you why it is important, and I am
going to hand the microphone to Congresswoman Tlaib in a
second. The reason it is important is, yes, you have unique
challenges here in these communities, but unfortunately across
the United States we have seen corporate polluters take
advantage of Americans everywhere, as well as internationally.
And even though my district in California, Orange County, is
2,000 miles away, we deal with similar situations. As we saw in
the PFAS committee hearing we just had about a week-and-a-half
ago, corporate polluters will stop at nothing other than
government holding them accountable because they will continue
to put profits before people.
Ms. Tlaib. Thank you.
So, we have some questions from the audience. I am going to
do--Ms. Shariff, one of the questions is directly to you. What
can be done about infrastructure of leaded water pipes
throughout Detroit and Wayne County? Millions are being lead
poisoned every day.
Ms. Shariff. Well, last year the state of Michigan revised
its leaded copper rule. With that revision, the lead service
lines, at least across the state, will be replaced, and the
residents do not have to pay for that. That is something that
the water systems have to pay for. But when it comes to
internal plumbing and water main replacement, unfortunately
right now that is going through the normal process. So I would
suggest for at least the water main replacement, for people to
kind of get into their local municipalities around the time
when it comes for them to develop their budget and to really
advocate for those particular dollars to go toward water main
replacement. Unfortunately at the Federal level, there aren't
large swaths of money outside of the revolving loan funds to go
toward infrastructure replacement.
Ms. Tlaib. Before you pass that out, one of the things that
we weren't able to put forward because Monica Lewis Patrick
couldn't come, but she was going to talk about water
affordability. Can you touch a little bit on that, please? I
can do it, but I don't--Mr. Leonard can also do it.
Ms. Shariff. Well, it is something that people around the
state have been working on for quite a while. Within Detroit,
under the leadership of ``We the People,'' they work toward
passing an income-based water affordability plan that
unfortunately was never fully implemented. That meant that it
would be based on your ability to pay. So that would be between
two and four percent of your household income; that is what you
would actually pay for your water.
How it is now, there is a water fee that is unregulated.
Water companies can really charge however much they want to
charge for water fees, and then there is the water usage. It is
something that we have been fighting for and we continue to
fight for, and unfortunately the critique at the state level
flies in the face of the Hedley Amendment, and I am sure Mr.
Leonard could probably talk more about that. But it is
something that people on the ground continue to fight for.
Mr. Leonard. Drinking water affordability is one of those
issues that keeps me up at night, because I think it is going
to get worse before it gets better. I mentioned the gross
underinvestment in our drinking water infrastructure throughout
the country and basically needing to dedicate 20 times what we
are currently dedicating in terms of grants and loans from the
Federal Government.
So where that burden falls when there is a lack of grants
and loans from the Federal Government is it falls on
ratepayers. In Detroit already, we have just tens of thousands
of people who have had their water shut off, and like I said,
it is going to get worse before it gets better unless we have
some legal protection for a right to affordable water, which we
just don't have right now, and we don't have any political
courage at the local level or at the state level currently to
take on this issue.
This is not just a Detroit issue. This is an issue that is
playing out in communities of color across the country, and it
is one that desperately needs help. I mean, like I mentioned,
recent surveys in Michigan have found people sort of switching
off paying their energy bills and their water bills, people
defraying medical costs, people defraying costs for food and
stuff like that to be able to afford their water.
We need Federal protection to guarantee a right to
affordable water in order to ensure that people have access to
this basic human need.
Ms. Tlaib. One of the questions from the audience for
myself and Chairman Rouda is with the President rolling back
all the clean water protections, what plan of action is this
committee going to take to protect the Great Lakes and the
vital waterways? That is from Ms. Landrum, who lives in this
neighborhood.
Well, for me personally, part of the way we fight back is
funding the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, fully funding
it. He keeps rolling that back. And putting resources in the
hands of environmental agencies and organizations. But the
committee has also held a number of hearings led by Chairman
Rouda on PFAS contamination and holding those industries
accountable.
But one of the things that people may or may not have
missed that Mr. Leonard talked about is the main theme here is
environmental racism, right? So the Civil Rights Act was passed
over 50 years ago, and in there the core intent was that you
could show disparate impacts as a way to access the courts to
say you are being discriminated against based on your whatever
background, and it could also be based on your source of
income. So if you are low income, if you are Wayne County and
you are low income and you are a woman, whatever it is, a
protected class.
The point is the Justice For All Civil Rights Act, which I
am introducing, goes back to the core intent of the Civil
Rights Act, because the case law that Mr. Leonard talked about,
there are a number of cases actually that really rolled back
our access to fight back in this way of saying this is
environmental racism, you are only doing this because this is a
predominantly black neighborhood or this is a predominantly
low-income neighborhood. This would basically allow us to
proceed with disparate impact, saying that the impact of the
policy, the impact of the funding, anything, resources being
pulled in, not having inspectors close by, that that is all
based on structural racism within not only the public but the
private sector as well.
So the Justice For All Civil Rights Act is the way we do it
because, to me, that is going to be transformative. It is not
just going to be about corporate polluters but also our own
government, which now is not creating a pathway to affordable
water, that you are seeing a lot of implementation at all
levels of government where our communities, especially
communities of color and low-income communities, and many parts
of my Wayne County community are not only African American but
they are also very, very poor white, Latino communities that
are literally not getting access to the same protections that
other communities have. So that is another way.
I also think one of the questions that came up was the
Clean Air--and by the way, whoever wrote this, this is the best
penmanship I have ever seen in my life. It looks like it is
typed, doesn't it? That is incredible. Whoever that is, wow.
[Laughter.]
Ms. Tlaib. The Clean Air Act mandates tech-based standards
that are ``technologically and economically feasible.'' As
such, achieving maximum public health results in sacrifice
zones in favor of plant operation. What regulatory tools are
available, and are you willing to use or maybe to shift the
balance from industry to the people?
It sounds like this is about basically allowing us to have
more of a say whether or not to allow a permit to come into our
space and where we live. Nick Leonard did mention amending the
Clean Air Act to change the permit calculus, and I think that
is the way to do it. I think most of the transformative changes
that have happened in our country, from passing the Clean Air
Act to getting women the right to vote to civil rights,
fighting for civil rights in our country, didn't happen because
of something that happened in the halls of Congress, really. It
doesn't start there. It always starts with all of you.
Please believe that, that movement starts with you that
demands it of us to make sure that you have access to
community-based, impact-based air permits to clean water to
affordability, to all of those things.
The last question that was part of the stack is a very
weighted question because this is something that, as a state
representative, Chairman, I struggled with and again continue
to struggle with as your Member of Congress. When will we hold
Marathon responsible? That is all it says, and it is to Mr.
Leonard. It is, it says to you.
Mr. Leonard. That is a great question, and I think the
answer is every day. We have to work to hold Marathon
accountable every day that it continues to operate, because it
will seek to maximize its profits. It will not inherently have
the community's best interests at heart.
I am not going to lie to you, there will be days when you
are going to be tired and you are going to think it is not
making a difference, but none of these environmental justice
victories that I have ever worked on, that I have ever heard
about or that somebody has told me about have ever come easy.
They have never been, oh, we worked on it for a week and then
it was done. You worked on it for years, and you struggled for
years, and there are long nights and late nights and all of
those things, but eventually you got there. I think it is
important to keep that faith and important to realize that you
can win and that people have won and that it is possible.
Mr. Rouda. Now I have a few questions as well. One of the
questions was how does the community deal with interacting with
corporate polluters? Dr. Leonard, I will direct that question
to you.
Dr. Leonard. How does the community? With your feet and
your dollars. Money is power. If you go back to the civil
rights era, it was with our money. We didn't buy here. So there
was the period of time--and I still don't buy Marathon oil. I
don't go to Marathon's gas stations. Other people may, but I
elect not to. However, I will acknowledge publicly that I have
Marathon stock. I bought Marathon stock so that I can see what
they are doing. I get a copy of their annual report, and I read
it. I make comments, not necessarily to the company. I don't
attend their annual meetings down in Finlay, Ohio. But I read
who is being elected. I look at their qualifications. I read
what is happening in other areas where Marathon is buying
property. So becoming a stockholder gives you a voice, a voice
that you can vote. You may not even agree with what is being
presented. You may agree with what is being presented. But you
can vote.
In 2007, the Sierra Club threatened to sue Marathon because
Marathon had asked the city of Detroit to have some finances
reduced, give them some money, you do this for us, we will give
you some money. The city of Detroit bought into it. They would
get jobs. Mind you, those jobs were not going to be Detroit
residents. I saw all those people coming in from Texas.
So Marathon had said to the city of Detroit, if you don't
let us come in with our expansion, we will go elsewhere. Well,
later the city of Detroit found out that Marathon had not
approached this other community. It was a dupe.
But the Sierra Club brought in their own lawyers. I was
fortunate to sit at the table during negotiations. Marathon
brought in attorneys from Chicago. One day, there were five or
six attorneys sitting across the table from the Sierra Club
Detroit person. There was a Sierra Club attorney from
California, myself, and another resident from Melvindale. It
was you reduce your sulfur emissions or we will sue you. It
wasn't to play chicken. It was this is what is going to happen.
I want you to know Marathon did reduce their planned sulfur
output.
[Applause.]
Dr. Leonard. In addition to that, if I may, sitting at that
table at that time, Marathon had indicated they were going to
put four fence line monitors around their property, monitors
that would evaluate what they were emitting. I asked for
monitors at our schools. Our children are vulnerable. Our
children, that is our future. Marathon said they would
consider, and they brought back a proposal that they would not
place a monitor at Mark Twain because of the wind direction.
However, we will place one of our four at Boynton School.
So I don't know if you have noticed that there is an air
monitor at Boynton School, and you can see it from Conway.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you.
I have a couple of cards here with questions. One was PFAS
is a concern in more places than drinking water, concerns
regarding soil contamination and the accumulation of PFAS.
Let me share a little bit more about what we have been
doing in this area on this committee, and that is addressing
perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, PFAS chemicals.
There are over 5,000 variants of these chemicals. The original
ones, PFOS and PFOA, have been mostly discontinued in the
United States. But the PFAS chemicals are still around.
The reason these chemicals are so horrific is that they are
called ``forever'' chemicals. They will be around long after
all of us pass away, as well as our children, our
grandchildren, and future generations. They accumulate in your
blood, in your tissue. We had very interesting testimony last
week when we had Chemours, Dupont, and 3M address our committee
on PFAS contamination across the United States. Some of the
stories that we had prior to that with people who had come in
and talked about their extreme contamination from these
chemicals was nothing short of heartbreaking, much like much of
the testimony we heard today from many of you, including Ms.
Lockridge.
We know that this is a concern that is not yet being fully
understood by all Americans as to how pervasive PFAS chemicals
are and how impactful it is going to be on drinking water
everywhere. When we look at drinking water challenges--not just
Flint, not just Detroit, but everywhere--and the impact of PFAS
chemicals, the challenges that the technologies to eliminate
PFAS chemicals to create clean drinking water currently is
online with reverse osmosis, which is almost like a
desalination plant.
There are very few municipal water districts in the United
States of America who can afford to do reverse osmosis to
ensure clean drinking water. Of course, that is just clean
drinking water for us. That doesn't include livestock, food
chains, agriculture and so on. So we know we have a huge
challenge, and that is why I am honored to be working with Vice
Chair Tlaib and shining a light on this incredibly important
topic.
The other card asks when are we going to address the coal-
burning plants that form dual threats to the quality of life in
Southeast Michigan? I can tell you that it is a threat not just
here but across our country and across the globe. We have a
president who not only abdicated his leadership in the Paris
Climate Accords by withdrawing--and to put this in perspective,
when President Trump made the commitment to withdraw from the
Paris Climate Accords, there were only two countries on the
face of the earth who were not participating in the Paris
Climate Accords. That was Syria and Nicaragua, who have since
joined the Paris Climate Accords. So the only country that has
not made a commitment to the Paris Climate Accords is the Trump
Administration, and that abdicated leadership is why it is more
important for all of us in this room and for us in our
committee work to continue to shine a bright light on these
topics and fight like hell, because we have to get to a clean
energy environment. Electricity needs to be produced through
clean-tech energy.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. That is why the overriding narrative of this
subcommittee's work is on climate change, past, present, and
future. What did we know, when did we know it, and why didn't
we do anything about it? Present, understanding the true human
and economic impact of climate change. And, by the way, it is
easy to predict the economic impact, and it is easy to predict
the human impact when you literally have to count the number of
people who have lost their homes, who have died because of
climate change events. What becomes harder is understanding the
impact of climate change when you are dealing with the
illnesses, whether it is wildfires in California that are
causing increased asthma, or the pollution that you deal with
every single day, both in your air and soil pollution and the
healthcare impact there.
Then we are going to talk about the future and have two
very clear avenues, the idea that we can have an apocalyptic
outcome or a nirvana outcome, and it is going to take all of us
to focus on what we can do to make sure we ensure that we have
a safer world for our children, our grandchildren, and future
generations.
With that, I am going to turn the mic back to Congresswoman
Tlaib for a few closing comments, and then I will do so as
well, and then we will adjourn.
Ms. Tlaib. Thank you so much, Chairman.
I want to thank you all so much for testifying. All of you
play an incredibly essential role in addressing environmental
racism in our country and the fight against corporate assault
on our families. That is exactly what it is, and that corporate
greed is driving a lot of these policies, and it is not
specific policies. Sometimes it is just the policy of doing
nothing, just deciding not to do anything. That is also a set
policy, and it is so critically important that we elevate the
voices of so many residents that are not in this room that are
dealing with this on a daily basis, every single day, and now
their children.
I want to thank, of course--my state representative just
walked in, Ms. Cynthia Johnson. Thank you so much for being
here.
[Applause.]
Ms. Tlaib. Most of what we are going to be able to do, not
only fighting to restore the Civil Rights Act, to be able to
challenge a lot of the injustice that we see in the courts, but
also to not only fund the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
but also how do we move, like the Chairman said, toward a
cleaner, better way of producing energy and so forth is our
commitment, our commitment to the movement work that is outside
of the halls of Congress where it is going to have to happen.
More of you, as much as you organize, as much as you
believe in clean water and clean air, you have to start taking
more and more actions. It is not going to be just talking to
each other, which we do a lot, but also picking up the phone
and calling. Many of you texted me and called me what happened
last week, and I said did you call the EPA? Call the Michigan
Department of Environment. We call it EGLE now. I put it out
there. I gave people the 800 number. Trust me, when 200 or 300
or 400 people are calling within Wayne County about what they
are experiencing, it is documented. It is not like, oh, the
Congresswoman is upset. It is, oh, we got 300 calls from
residents throughout the neighborhood that are calling. It
gives so much credibility to what you are trying to do when you
say I can't breathe, I just had an asthma attack, I smell this
odor outside of my home. It is so critically important.
Many of you do this already. I used to get the call list.
But it is the same 20 people. I am asking all of you, before
you leave, see my staff. We have magnets, like we have a right
to breathe clean air. If you see anything, please report it. It
helps elevate the work that we are doing on a national level if
you are holding corporate polluters here locally accountable
here, and it is critically important as we proceed to push
forward policy that is more humane and more just for all of us.
But again, I can't thank you all enough for helping to put
a human face to it. Please know that this is just the
beginning. I know from hearing all of you that it refuels me to
being even more committed to elevating your voices, but also
fighting against environmental racism and corporate greed. But
we at the Federal level in Congress need to do more, and we
know that, but you all doing this and showing up reconfirms for
us, kind of gets us recommitted again to really trying to push
forward.
The one thing I have learned--and you all know this. Many
of you talk to me about how is it going, it is your first year,
and I tell you that there seems to be this lack of urgency, you
know? I just want you to know that this makes us feel, like,
okay, we have to move quicker. Yes, this is urgent, this is
911, we have to move. I mean, how many times do we need to
study the fact that we are dying? We don't need that anymore.
[Applause.]
Ms. Tlaib. So just know that all of your work is so
important, and it is this partnership, this kind of level of
partnership that is going to be able to get us transformative
change for all of us in our communities.
Thank you all so much. I am incredibly, incredibly proud to
represent you in the U.S. Congress.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. I too would like to thank our witnesses for
participating today.
The members will have up to five legislative days to submit
additional questions to you. We would just ask that in the
event that happens, that you please give those answers back to
our staff as quickly as possible.
It has been an honor to be here with all of you today. One
of the things I always talk about is shining a light on these
issues. Like Vice Chair Tlaib, I am a freshman. I have never
run for office before in my life. I defeated a 30-year
incumbent.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. I always got asked, I always got asked why do
you think you can do more in Congress than a 30-year incumbent?
Well, candidly, the bar was fairly low. But that aside----
[Laughter.]
Mr. Rouda. We have an obligation as Members of Congress
wherever we go to remember that we have a podium and a
microphone, and that we need to use that podium and that
microphone to shine a bright light on the issues affecting our
country and our communities, and that is why I am very proud to
serve with Congresswoman Tlaib.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. I will leave you--since Ms. Lockridge used a
Martin Luther King, Jr. quote earlier, I may not have it exact,
but I shall do my best. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that we
and our ancestors may have come over on different boats, but we
are all in the same boat now, so let's work together and
address the issues facing all of us.
[Applause.]
Mr. Rouda. Thank you.
This hearing is adjourned.
[Applause.]
[Whereupon, at 3:42 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]