A Zug Island coke factory has made headlines for its petition to add three tons of dust into the air of the Detroit metro area, the Detroit Free Press reported.
What’s happening?
Officials with the factory in River Rouge filed documents to ask permission to expand its processes and air pollution despite the fact it’s already being sued by the Environmental Protection Agency for multiple Clean Air Act violations.
This factory is run by EES Coke Battery, a subsidiary of DTE Energy. Its facility has 85 ovens that operate in an oxygen-free environment to process coal into coke . The coke is then used to process iron.
DTE representatives offered a comment to the Free Press via an emailed statement: “The pending permit is to install a secondary screener that will be operated within an enclosed building and use foam suppressant to prevent particulate from becoming airborne. The permit is unrelated to the pending litigation. EES Coke’s operation is governed by regulations aimed at protecting public health, and the plant is dedicated to responsibly operating under those regulations while it continues to serve crucial industrial and civic functions through the production of coke to fuel the steel industry and the provision of over 170 jobs.”
Why is the EES Coke Battery expansion important?
Coke plants emit tons of sulfur dioxide into the air. The facility in Michigan released 3,600 tons of sulfur dioxide in 2021 alone. This expansion would also increase emissions of dust that is so fine it can bypass humans’ respiratory hairs and mucus layers, infecting lungs easily…