Detroit Mayor Threatens Suit Over Marathon's Plan To Increase Refinery Emissions

DETROIT (WWJ) - Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is threatening a lawsuit over emissions levels at the Marathon refinery plant on the city's southwest side.

Marathon is proposing increasing emissions of sulfur dioxide at its plant in southwest Detroit by 22 tons per year. The company says it needs to increase the pollutants in order to meet new "Tier 3" low-sulfur fuel standards that take effect in 2017.

Company officials say the increase is in accordance with guidelines set by the US Environmental Protection Agency but Mayor Duggan says it's ridiculous.

The mayor said the area is already the most polluted airspace in the state.

"You cannot raise the pollutant levels on a poor area and the most polluted to benefit everybody else," Duggan said at a community meeting Thursday night. "I believe that's a civil rights violation."

One resident, Theresa Landrum, says she does not want to see any more pollutants in the air either.

"We are one of the areas in this small tri-city community that has a high rate of asthma among our children and we see it growing fastly in our adult population as well," she said.  "From my understanding and the research that I've done, it's a carcinogenic. We have a huge area of seniors and may of them have compromised breathing."

Duggan is threatening a lawsuit if Marathon goes ahead with the emissions increase, which still requires approval from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

Dave Roland, general manager at the refinery, said there has been quite a bit of "misinformation" going around concerning the proposed emissions increase.

"The city of Detroit's Health Department has fallen victim to poor fact-checking, and has spread incorrect information concerning our refinery," Roland said in a statement, which was posted online. "I would hope our city and state government officials could be more supportive of one of their largest taxpaying businesses, rather than cherry-picking what they choose to disclose or, worse, putting forth outright misinformation."

Roland said although emissions would be increased at the refinery, it would allow them to produce gasoline that is almost sulfur-free -- just 10 parts per million of sulfur, down from 30 parts per million today -- eventually leading to less sulfur dioxide in the environment and improved air quality overall.

"Based on the latest Michigan gasoline data available, the new Tier 3 gasoline will reduce sulfur dioxide emission from our vehicles by 575 tons per year," he said. "About 40 percent of that reduction will be in the metro Detroit area, meaning we'll see 230 tons per year less sulfur dioxide in the air we breathe."

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• Pollution