Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Air Quality Industrial Expansion topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Neighborhood groups urge council to block Kronos expansion over air-quality fears
Summary
Representatives of the Detroit Hamtramck Coalition and local residents warned the council that Kronos/Crown Enterprises’ proposed concrete-crushing expansion near Jerome and Moran would worsen air pollution and harm nearby residents’ health.
Karen Washington, speaking for We Care about Van Dyke 7 Mile, told council members that the community opposes Kronos’s proposed operations near 6 Mile and Jerome because of existing air-quality problems and the project’s potential to worsen pollution.
The issue matters to public health advocates because speakers cited American Lung Association air-quality grades that place Detroit and Wayne County at a poor level and argued that additional silica dust and particulate matter from concrete crushing would disproportionately affect children, the elderly and people with respiratory conditions.
Washington said the site, described in comments as the former Hercules Cement Company property, and over 40 acres of adjacent lots, has already displaced businesses and residents and now sits vacant. She said: "We can't have kids going to school in silica dust rain." She warned that approving street closures or other accommodations for the company would enable an expansion that the neighborhood views as harmful.
Allison Bone, constituent director for State Senator Chang, read a letter from the senator urging the council to deny street closures that would enable Kronos to expand and to require a community agreement to address environmental, public-health and quality-of-life concerns. Bone said the senator’s office supports the Detroit Hamtramck Coalition for Advancing Healthy Environments and urged the council to hold polluters accountable.
Speakers highlighted a pattern they described as environmental injustice, noting prior examples where company purchases left parcels vacant and reduced local jobs and services. One commenter warned that Crown Enterprises (also referenced as Kronos by speakers) has previously ‘‘forced all the businesses out’’ of shopping centers, leaving vacant lots that deteriorated.
No council action was taken because the meeting lacked a quorum; the comments were accepted for the record. Speakers asked the council to deny street-closure requests, require strong community benefits agreements if any expansion proceeds, and to closely review any permit or closure requests for air-quality safeguards.
Because the council did not vote or refer the matter at this session, advocates said they will return with additional testimony and documentation at future meetings.
