During the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality meeting on January 28, 2016, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan promised to sue The Marathon Oil company if it is granted a permit to increase emissions in its southwest Detroit location, making his declaration in the presence of the residents, doctors, and environmental organizations who attended. Cited as one of the most polluted zip codes in America, southwest Detroit has been combating a pollution problem long before the Flint water crisis.

In 1930, the Aurora Gasoline Company built the oil refinery off of I-75 in the Detroit zip code of 48217. It was bought by the Ohio Oil Company in 1959 which is now the Marathon Oil Company. The site currently staffs over 700 contract workers and employees with a refining capacity of 123,000 barrels per calendar day. With six other state locations, Marathon’s annual profit report was 2.4 billion in the year 2014 alone. The company’s website reported asset increases and emission decreases. In fact, since reporting their emissions in 1999, Marathon proudly claims a 72 percent reduction of multiple chemical compounds. Residents in the area no longer need to protect their cars from soot thanks to updated filter systems and pollution cuts mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Air-quality monitors have been placed in designated areas in southwest Detroit to ensure emission rates are not exceeding EPA limits.

However, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the state agency that controls most of Michigan’s environmental affairs, is considering authorizing Marathon Oil’s request to revise its permit to increase sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 22 tons per year. SO2 is a colorless, pungent gas that is released when gasoline is extracted from oil. However, revising the permit may not comply with the Tier 3 Gasoline Project, a rule made by the EPA to reduce emission standards and specifically, sulfur dioxide by 2017. The agency reports that once the project has been carried out, health benefits could prevent at least 700 premature deaths, 19,000 asthma cases, and 1.4 million lost days of work or school. The change is an effort to achieve and maintain the state’s existing health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

The EPA has provided at least 5 years of lead time for oil refineries including Marathon to adapt to the change. During the meeting, Marathon rationalized the request for the sulfur dioxide increase with their progress of past reductions, allowing a marginalized threshold of 5.5 extra tons. According to a public document released by Marathon, “That 22 tons-per-year increase includes over 16.5 tons per year that we’re already allowed to emit under existing air permits. The remaining 5.5 tons per year are what is being requested for the Tier 3 Fuels project.”

“We have two other projects that are currently budgeted at our refineries that are going to significantly reduce emissions,” Jim Wilkins, director of environmental safety and security states at the meeting. “One of these projects entails shutting down one of our flares and also putting flare gas recovery systems on two other of our flares at a cost of 55 million dollars.”

In total, Wilkins’ presentation featured at least a 57 ton reduction of sulfur dioxide.

Most attendees did not agree.

“We should not be here today debating this permit,” Mayor Duggan spoke to the attendees. “[President Obama] never intended in that [Tier 3] rule [that] you would take the sulfur out of the cars and trucks and dump it all into one neighborhood.”

The MDEQ measures the amount of sulfur dioxide in the state of Michigan including the Upper Peninsula. They rate the levels granting attainment and nonattainment per county, reporting in their official status that, “All Michigan Counties except an area in Wayne County meet the 2010 Sulfur Dioxide National Ambient Air Quality Standards.”

“We are already seeing lung cancer at rates of 25 percent above the state average,” Duggan said. “We have asthma 50 percent above the state average.”

No response was given from the Detroit location of The Marathon Oil Company when approached for comment. Local schools and anonymous city employees feared speaking against the oil giant, concerned that if anything traced back to them, they could lose their jobs.

“People down here complain about Marathon,” an anonymous employee said. “But we can’t say anything.” He also spoke of multiple car accidents that occur off of I-75 near the refinery due to the pollution. He describes slippery roadways after rainfall resulting in multiple collisions, suggesting that oil residue and emissions from the refinery may contribute to the slippery conditions.

As the meeting came to a close, the representative from Marathon Oil repeated, “At the end of the day, we are stepping up to the plate.” He went on to say, “Our refinery is on a steady decline in emissions. And we are proud of that and we take that commitment very, very seriously.” Clearly, this is not the end of the story. Look for the next part of this series in the next issue of The Mirror News.