Growing up in River Rouge, Ebony Elmore remembers seeing thick gas clouds form in the sky every time it would rain.
No matter the weather, there was a constant smell in the air from the heavy industry near her house.
The community, just 10 miles southwest of Detroit, was once home to the Ford River Rouge complex, the largest factory in the world. It was an industrial magnet that became a symbol of neglect in the Great Lakes state. Companies belched smoke into the skies and dumped chemicals unabatedly into the Detroit River and its tributary, the Rouge River. In 1969, the Rouge River hit an environmental low when the oil and industrial waste in the waterway caught fire, with flames reaching as high as 50 feet…