Last week the Flint City Council voted to challenge the permits for the construction of an Ajax Materials Corp. asphalt plant in Genessee Township. In a separate legal action, Earthjustice and the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center announced a lawsuit against those who approved the asphalt plant’s required permits: Great Lakes and Energy and the Michigan Department of Environment.
The environmental organizations claim the plant would further contaminate the air near Dort Highway and Carpenter Road, which already has high level of contamination from industrial facilities. Lead, particulate matter, and sulfur are included in the emissions the new plant would release into the air. The lawsuit claims that the air quality data used by state regulators to approve the plant permit was pulled from 50 miles away and included inconsistent figures on how much material the plant will process.
Nearly 3000 people live within one mile of where the plant would be constructed.
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