Tag: detroit river

FLOW and allies secure Public Health Assessment of BASF, Inc. toxic discharges in Wyandotte, Michigan

Published on December 5th, 2024 by - Blog Posts, News, Reports & Media Releases

Contact:
Carrie La Seur, FLOW Legal Director
carrie@flowforwater.org
(231) 944-1568

Traverse City, Mich.— The nonprofit law and policy center For Love of Water (FLOW) and its allies Detroit Riverkeeper, Friends of the Detroit River, the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision, have successfully petitioned for a Public Health Assessment for the community of Wyandotte, Michigan in relation to ongoing toxic discharges from the BASF (Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik, Germany’s largest chemical company) facilities located on the Detroit River.

The petition was made on February 29, 2024 to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the federal environmental public health agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. On November 19, 2024, ATSDR accepted the petition and ordered that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) conduct the assessment.

This is an important victory for the community of Wyandotte, which has experienced toxic dumping and contamination from BASF Wyandotte for over 60 years. BASF has continuously and repeatedly discharged hazardous wastes – with and without permits – into the Upper Trenton Channel of the Detroit River, near Wyandotte’s municipal water intake.

Officials, agencies, and citizen groups have sounded the alarm about the BASF facilities since 1980. In a July 2022 letter, U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell called upon U.S. EPA Region 5 to address pollution violations by BASF Wyandotte, noting “reports of alarming rates of contamination release” entering the Detroit River and that BASF has been under an EPA Administrative Order on Consent for cleanup since 1994 – which it has not fulfilled. According to a November 2021 brief from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), “Contaminant concentrations exceed water quality standards, including final acute values, at multiple locations.”

FLOW Legal Director Carrie La Seur, the author of the petition, said: “While much more needs to be done, and quickly, to end toxic discharges from BASF Wyandotte to the Detroit River, this is an encouraging sign that state and federal agencies are willing to act to protect the health of southwest Detroit.”

The Wyandotte Public Health Assessment will be a comprehensive review of all available data about chemical contamination originating from BASF and the impact on public health. Through this process, the public will gain crucial information about the human health risks related to BASF’s discharges to the soil, air, and water, and how those hazards can be stopped or reduced. This is an important step towards holding the German multinational chemical producer accountable for releasing toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic substances into Michigan’s environment.

Stop doing that, or else we’ll tell you to stop again: BASF polluting the Detroit River

Published on August 29th, 2023 by - Blog Posts

When you get a speeding ticket, you don’t get 43 years to pay it. And when you contaminate a river with toxic materials — a much bigger hazard than going 45 in a 40 – you shouldn’t get 43 years to stop doing it and pay a fine.

But there’s a double standard in Michigan when it comes to toxic discharge from the BASF facility in Wyandotte. Just upstream from a public drinking water intake for the city of Wyandotte, the company has been discharging 3,000 gallons per hour of polluted groundwater into the Detroit River for decades.

It’s been 43 years since the state first ordered BASF to stop polluting the river. 

The trouble is, the state has never enforced the command.

Meanwhile, a toxic stew that now includes everything from PFAS to mercury is coughed up by the old industrial site 24/7/365. Some of these chemicals are not even monitored, even though they are upstream from the drinking water intake.

Last week, at a public meeting to explain the status of the problem, well-meaning public servants from the U.S. EPA and Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) told citizens that it will be another three years before BASF begins construction of what is being called the permanent remedy. This is appalling.

Every day that BASF is allowed to contaminate the river is another violation of federal and state clean water laws. According to state statute, the company is theoretically liable for penalties of $25,000 per day. 

The mistakes of previous generations of state officials can’t be blamed on those in decision-making positions in 2023. But unless they – and their bosses at the top of EPA and EGLE today – take action, the degradation of the Detroit River will be the result of their failure to enforce the law. And the public will suffer.

Here’s what you can do:

  • Learn more about the history and current state of the BASF Wyandotte pollution violations via this website.
  • Send an email to the Michigan Attorney General (Dana Nessel (miag@michigan.gov) asking her to immediately enforce provisions of the state Court Order with BASF that her predecessor Frank Kelley fought for and won in U.S. District Court in 1985.
  • Alert the new EGLE Director Phil Roos (roosp@michigan.gov) of the urgent need for his agency to stop BASF from discharging 3,000 gallons per hour of toxic contaminated groundwater to the Great Lakes in Wyandotte, and ask the new director to take action to protect public health and the health of the Detroit River.