East side residents, community organizations and political leaders gathered at Gaylord and Moran Friday morning to urge the city to close a concrete crushing plant they say is polluting their neighborhood.
Local activist Jahdante Smith, who lives in District 3, says residents nearby the facility report poor air quality, noise pollution from the truck traffic and blight outside of the facility.
“It’s very detrimental to our health that people have to live in these conditions — there are kids and elderly people,” Smith said during the press conference. “No one, no matter their age, gender, race or class should be subjected to these conditions.”
State Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit and U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed joined Smith and other activists including Russ Bellant, residents Diana Morris, John Szymanski and members the Detroit Hamtramck Coalition to call for the shut down of the facility.
Morris told Michigan Chronicle the neighborhood has been decimated as a result of the concrete crushing facility.
“I’ve lived here for 50 years,” Morris said in an interview Friday. “Cadillac Heights used to be all homes. There used to be five or six hardwares in the area, Frank’s Nursery used to be right there. It used to be a neighborhood, but the facility has pushed people out. The dust in in our cars, on our homes — I was trying to wash down the side of my house.”
Director of the Detroit Green Task Force Kerwin Wimbley and a member of Scott Benson’s office pointed to the property rights of the facility, saying that unless they break the law, there’s nothing the city can do.
Activists at the event pointed out that Benson was one of the council members that approved the deal that allowed Kronos to stay put after it opened illegally.
However, Benson says it was Duggan that cut the deal with Kronos for the Cadillac Heights property in a land exchange deal to build a Stellantis plant before the Kronos site was ever proposed.
“This was a city of Detroit deal cut on the 11th floor,” Benson told BridgeDetroit earlier this year. “When Kronos opened illegally, my office worked with the Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department to shut them down.”
Despite the health hazards, the city has defended the facility, saying the plant, now zoned for heavy industrial use, is within its legal rights to operate within the neighborhood. City officials say the facility has worked to maintain air quality at a healthy level.
Resident Diana Morris, tells Michigan Chronicle she’s lived in the neighborhood for 50 of the 64 years she’s been alive. Her dad, who worked for the city of Detroit’s transportation department, died of lung cancer, she says.
“He passed away in 1992 from what I believe was the asbestos in the paint and in the signs that he drove across the city in the summer and winter, year after year,” Morris said.
Silica dust particles can cause serious health issues such as silicosis, lung cancer and COPD. Morris says the plant has directly contributed to her breathing issues that have worsened since the facility opened.
“I am in the process to out exactly what affects my lungs and what’s causing the different changes in my breathing.”
U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed joined Smith, Chang and eastside community members to call for the plant’s shut down.
El-Sayed is the former Wayne County health director. He explained that our bodies can cough up the larger particulate matter, but not smaller particles that end up getting stuck in your lungs.
“When you breathe them in, your body can’t cough them up — for babies and children, that means their lungs are constantly working against the added pressure of the gunk that is inside of them,” El-Sayed said Friday. “It increases the probability of asthma and chronic lung disease later in life.”
