The federal government has sued the EES Coke Battery plant on Zug Island, alleging the facility violated the Clean Air Act by significantly increasing its sulfur dioxide emissions and endangering the health of people who live in the surrounding Wayne County neighborhoods including River Rouge and southwest Detroit.
The plant — owned by DTE Vantage, a subsidiary of DTE Energy — has emitted thousands of additional tons of sulfur dioxide into the air since 2014, federal prosecutors representing the Environmental Protection Agency wrote in a complaint filed Wednesday in Detroit U.S. District Court. It continues to emit more than it is allowed.
The coal-powered plant produces coke, a material used to make steel. Through the process, it produces what prosecutors call “coke oven gas” that can be used as fuel. It produces sulfur dioxide when it is burned. The battery plant can send the fuel to be used in other facilities, use it to power its own facilities or burn it in a flare.
State environmental regulators granted the facility a new permit in 2014 that removed the plant’s limit on coke fire gas combustion, a process that emits sulfur dioxide, upon the company’s promise the move “would not result in a significant increase in emissions,” prosecutors wrote.
But it did increase emissions beyond what it told the state and beyond its previous allowable limits, prosecutors wrote, and the company failed to seek a required federal review, obtain required permits or install required pollution controls.
For example, in 2018 the plant emitted 3,200 tons of sulfur dioxide pollution instead of the 2,100 tons it was allowed, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a Thursday press release. Last year, prosecutors said the plant emitted 3,068 tons of sulfur dioxide.
DTE is reviewing the lawsuit, a company spokesman said in a statement.
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“We believe we have complied with all relevant regulations governing the operations conducted at EES Coke,” the statement reads. “DTE remains committed to responsibly operating the plant as it continues to serve crucial industrial and civic functions through the production of coke to fuel the steel industry and the employment of over 170 people.”
Exposure to sulfur dioxide pollution can damage people’s respiratory systems and make it difficult to breathe. It is especially harmful for people who have asthma.
Asthma is a longstanding problem in Detroit. Compared with the rest of the state, city residents are more likely to be diagnosed with, hospitalized or killed by the disease.
More: Detroit’s longtime problem with asthma is getting worse. Why that’s concerning
Sulfur dioxide pollution also contributes to acid rain and can harm trees and other plants. It contributes to fine particulate matter pollution, which, when inhaled, can harm people’s lungs and heart functions and cause premature death.
Several Wayne County communities around the plant, from southwest Detroit to Brownstown Township, do not meet federal air quality standards for sulfur dioxide pollution.
The EES Coke Battery plant is “one of the largest sources of SO2 pollution in Michigan,” the government’s complaint states. The plant sits on the border of River Rouge and southwest Detroit.
The Department of Justice sued on behalf of the EPA. Prosecutors are asking a court to order the plant to bring its pollution within legal limits, take measures to offset the health and environmental harms caused by the pollution and pay a fine of up to $109,024 per day.
