***PRESS RELEASE***

Contact Information:
Mona Munroe-Younis
Executive Director
Environmental Transformation Movement of Flint
(810) 845-4633
etmflint@gmail.com

Release Date: November 16, 2021

FLINT/GENESEE TOWNSHIP COALITION TO STOP AJAX ASPHALT PLANT REPROACHES

GOVERNOR WHITMER, GENESEE TOWNSHIP BOARD OF TRUSTEES, & AJAX
FOR PERPETUATING ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM AGAINST FLINT RESIDENTS

The Coalition to Stop Ajax Asphalt plant is appalled at Governor Whitmer’s, Michigan Dept. of
Environment, Great Lakes & Energy’s (EGLE’s), Genesee Township Board of Trustees’ and Ajax Material
Corporation’s actions to knowingly commit environmental racism. Over the past four months, Coalition
members have educated the State of Michigan about state laws that give the agency power and
authority to fully consider environmental justice concerns in its permit decisions1. Yesterday, EGLE
announced its decision to award Ajax a permit to build a polluting asphalt plant in a known
environmental justice community, next to one of Flint’s lowest-income, predominantly Black
neighborhoods, despite strong and persistent community opposition. Coalition members have educated
Ajax and the Genesee Township Board of Trustees about the factory site’s environmental justice history
and the fact that building at its proposed location would again disproportionately harm Black people in a
neighborhood repeatedly burdened by environmental pollution. Yet Ajax continued to aggressively
destroy forest to prepare to build the plant. Ajax’s presumption that the permit would be issued
indicates that Michigan’s permit process is seen as simply a formality and a joke for industry players. For
this new plant to be built, Genesee Township sold its land and issued the building permit to Ajax without
considering the Townships’ civil rights obligations. In the November 9, 2021 Genesee Township Board of
Trustees meeting, the board deferred (and several trustees chuckled) when the Genesee Township
attorney stated that as long as local zoning requirements are met, anything can be built on the
industrially zoned land, including a nuclear power plant. Trustees admitted that Genesee Township
zoning laws are weak and the comprehensive master plan is outdated, but demonstrated no concern to

1
Excerpt from public comment letter on the Ajax asphalt draft permit, submitted to EGLE on 9/22/2021 by The
Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice on behalf of their clients Flint Rising, the Environmental
Transformation Movement of Flint, and the St. Francis Prayer Center (see pages 12-14 of the letter).
“EGLE has the authority to require a cumulative impact assessment regarding any toxic air contaminant
pursuant to Mich. Admin. Code R. 336.1228 (Rule 228) and Mich. Admin. Code R. 336.1901 In addition,
the Michigan Environmental Policy Act, MCL 324.1705(2), requires that EGLE consider the effect of the
proposed permit on the environment and should not authorize conduct that will pollute, impair or destroy
the air, water or other natural resources if "there is a feasible and prudent alternative consistent with the
reasonable requirements of the public health, safety, and welfare. (Rule 901).”
fix the laws and master plan in order to protect its own residents who are forced to breathe toxic air and
face depressed property values from industrial activities.

When I-475 and I-69 were built decades ago, Black and immigrant neighborhoods were literally wiped off
the map in the name of “urban renewal.” Hundreds of homes were torn down and many of the families
were displaced to River Park, the Flint Housing Commission’s largest low-income housing complex - now
across the street from Ajax’s newly acquired property. Genesee Township created a structural
environmental racism issue for Flint by zoning all of its major industrial corridors near the City of Flint
and City of Mt. Morris, marginalizing Flint and Mt. Morris residents from having local control over
industrial activity in their neighborhoods. Ajax’s plant will create a different type of displacement -
people will lose their lives or have their lives cut short due to breathing toxic air. It’s the grandchildren of
people forcibly displaced from their vibrant neighborhoods when the highways were built who will be
affected this time. Black lives are being sacrificed for “progress” - this time, Governor Whitmer’s “fix the
damn roads” policy which is driving the demand for asphalt production to repair highways like I-69 and
I-475. Governor Whitmer is fixing the roads on the backs of poor Black people rather than ensuring that
anticipated industrial expansion would not cause a new environmental justice crisis . Governor Whitmer
stayed silent while Flint residents urged the state to be proactive about preventing this environmental
injustice, similar to what we experienced with the Flint water crisis under Governor Snyder.

As a result, we had to take our concerns to the federal level, spurring the EPA to take the unprecedented
action of submitting its own public comment letter to EGLE, advising that the state department should
require a cumulative impact analysis in order to have enough information to thoughtfully decide
whether to issue the permit, and asking local (Genesee Township) officials, EGLE and Ajax to seek a
different location for the plant to prevent further environmental injustice.

Bottom line: EPA’s public comment letter and existing Michigan laws gave EGLE all the guidance and
authority it needed to deny the permit outright, or delay the permit decision until December 2021 while
requiring Ajax to assess the cumulative environmental impacts on Flint. Instead, EGLE punted
responsibility to the EPA by issuing a letter asking for additional guidance and funding, alongside the
notice of the approved permit. EGLE is looking for a pat on the back for making a few minor permit
modifications. The truth is that state departments already have the power to set more stringent policies
than those at the federal level. The issue isn’t lack of legislation, it is lack of will to proactively use it to
protect Black communities - like Flint, Detroit, Benton Harbor and Highland Park which repeatedly raise
issues of cumulative environmental burdens to a state government that stays silent until protests reach
national media attention. The State of Michigan does not allow environmental burdens to pile up in
predominantly white and affluent communities. The permit decision simply would have been different in
a white neighborhood. Our demand: move the plant to an existing brownfield far away from people.

“These children have already been through enough with the Flint water crisis, and then getting a
settlement only to be exposed to radiation poisoning. And now, we’re telling them that on top of the
health concerns that they already have they’re going to have more impact from Ajax, because remember
there’s already an incinerator there!” said directly affected resident, community organizer and Coalition
member Lashaya Darisaw.

The Coalition to Stop Ajax Asphalt Plant includes the St. Francis Prayer Center, C.A.U.T.I.O.N,
Environmental Transformation Movement of Flint, Flint Rising, Greater Holy Temple Church, Michigan
United, R. L. Jones Community Outreach Center Campus, Mi JustUs, and Flint and Genesee Township
residents.

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