June 28, 2004
BY HUGH MCDIARMID JR.
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Toxic waste generated in Michigan is up, mirroring an increase in pollutants nationwide, according to data released last week.
More than 133 million pounds of toxic substances were released into the environment during 2002 in Michigan, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That was up 2.8 percent from the previous year.
The pollution includes emissions from smokestacks, discharges to waterways and toxic waste sent to landfills and other disposal facilities.
Michigan numbers were skewed by one big change, according to Ruth Borgelt, an analyst with the state's Department of Environmental Quality.
National Steel in Ecorse, which has since been acquired by U.S. Steel, reported 13 million more pounds of zinc compounds disposed of in landfills in the 2002 report -- a huge volume that was not included the previous years.
"The steel company told us they lost their market for recycling, so we had 13 million pounds of metal we didn't have before," said Borgelt.
It it hadn't been for that, Michigan's releases would have been down 7.2 percent.
The report ranked Wayne County sixth-highest in the country for toxic releases. More than 63 million pounds of pollution came from Wayne, home to many industries and power-generating facilities.
Monroe County, home of DTE Energy's massive Monroe power plant, ranked 52nd on the national list, and Ottawa County on Lake Michigan's shore ranked 79th, primarily due to releases from a Consumers Energy power plant.
Nationally, industry released nearly 4.8 billion pounds of pollution ranging from arsenic to zinc during 2002, the latest year for which figures are available. It was a 5-percent increase -- only the second increase in pollutants during the 15 years since the government began tracking toxins in 1988.
EPA officials said the national numbers were skewed by the shutdown of a huge copper smelting facility in Arizona -- which resulted in the declaration of millions of pounds of materials as toxic waste. Without that shutdown, they said, total releases would have been down 3 percent for 2002.
The Michigan report has bright spots, said local environmentalists. Toxic releases to both the air and to lakes and rivers were down slightly.
But Michigan still has a long way to go to minimize pollution, said Megan Owens, spokeswoman for the nonprofit Public Interest Research Group in Michigan.
"It's nice to see that, for the most part, the trends are down," she said. "But you can't help but look at the power plants that make up seven of the top 10 polluters, releasing bioaccumulative toxic substances. If we could just clean up five plants in the entire state, it would take us a long way."
Power plants -- particularly DTE's Monroe coal-burning plant -- have been under fire for years in Michigan. Environmental groups, plant owners and state and federal governments continue to spar over the scope and timetable of new pollution controls.
Owens said the prevalence of power plants among the top polluters should also be a catalyst for more energy efficiency as well as alternative power sources that could cut reliance on coal-generated electricity.
She cautioned though that all pollution is not created equal -- so simply noting the pounds released is not necessarily an accurate measure of toxicity.
"Sure, who's to say what's worse? A gram of dioxin? Ten pounds of mercury? Ten thousand pounds of metals?" For information on toxic releases, and to find toxic releases in your ZIP code, go to www.epa.gov/tri/.
Contact HUGH McDIARMID JR. at 248-351-3295 or mcdiarmid@freepress.com.
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