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Message-ID: <33B13CB6.16AB@worldnet.att.net> Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 11:43:50 -0400 From: Brenda LiveOak <BlIVEOAK@worldnet.att.net> Reply-To: Bliveoak@worldnet.att.net X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0C-WorldNet (Win95; I) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Gloria E. Helfand" <ghelfand@umich.edu> Subject: Re: E-M:/ 36 Cities Do Not Meet Air Quality Standards References: <Pine.SOL.3.95.970624140331.13398E-100000@recycle.snre.umich.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Gloria E. Helfand wrote: > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Enviro-Mich message from "Gloria E. Helfand" <ghelfand@umich.edu> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > On Tue, 24 Jun 1997, GreenPlanet wrote: > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Enviro-Mich message from GreenPlanet <riccawu@MNSi.Net> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > Does anyone know which cities are on this list, is Detroit one of them? > > > > Thanks to a friend, here's the info. (Forgive Jonathan, who lives in > Tennessee, for not knowing what county Detroit's in.) > > >From rubin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Tue Jun 24 14:03:16 1997 > Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 13:36:49 -0400 (EDT) > From: Jonathan D Rubin <rubin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu> > To: "Gloria E. Helfand" <ghelfand@umich.edu> > Subject: Re: E-M:/ 36 Cities Do Not Meet Air Quality Standards (fwd) > > Gloria: > > It looks like Detroit is ok. The list can be found at: > > http://134.67.104.12/naaqspro/o3list.htm > > > > Jonathan Rubin > Dept. of Economics, and > Energy, Environment and Resources Center > University of Tennessee > rubin@utk.edu > (423) 974-1879 phone > (423) 974-1838 fax > > Gloria E. Helfand (313) 764-6529 > School of Natural Resources and Environment fax (313) 936-2195 > The University of Michigan ghelfand@umich.edu > Dana Building, 430 E. University > Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1115 > Detroit is not O.K.. The data is slanted, the monitors improperly positioned. I have lived here all my life. I do not beleive any of those lists for a second. I have been all over the usa and when I come home I can see Detroit for miles. I drive home from work between 5:30 and 9:00 am each morning. I drive over the I-75 Rouge bridge. It is the perfect view to see the smog. the air just sits there in one big cloud as particulates tend to do when the ozone is bad. While The Rouge Plant, Zug Island, the Wastewater treatment plant incinerators, and Marathon refinery (to name a few) spew their guts out in perfect view of everything. The air gets so heavy even the healthiest lungs can barely raise a breath. Go see for yourself. while all the suburbanites sit and enjoy a swim in the family pool on these hot summery days think of the poor and minorities who are suffering in that area. Better yet educate the family and take a tour of the area and see what I mean. When you take the tour be sure to drive through the area down Fort street, Jefferson, Old Dix and Oakwood Blvd in Southwest Detroit (windows down please). Take a stroll down Zug island road and catch the sweet scent of Nephthalane as it burns your nostrils. I-75 provides a nice view from the top so you can actually see the air (make sure you go on a hot day and in the early morning, But it provides an escape for the suburbanite who really doesn't want to drive through the area and see the what an ignored environment as brought about. Just ask the Canadians across the way (You can look across the water and see right from the Jefferson WWTP outfall near Dearborn Street in Delray) about what damage their air has (Just a friendly gift from their neighbors across the water. Aren't we nice.) when the wind blows their way. While we so strongly fight the battle to keep the Canadian trash out of Michigan landfills who fights the fight to keep the trash in our air our of Canadain lungs? Is it chance that an Arab neightborhood lies right under the cloud of the pollution from the Rouge plant? Is it chance that mostly Latinos and Blacks live in the shadow of Zug Island and the Det WWTP? Is it chance that Edward oil, Sibole Oil, Marathon Refinery are in the heart of poor white and black neighborhoods. Is it some kind of strategy? If it isn't chance, isn't strategy? what is it? What about the high asthma rate of the children in the area. Go visit Childrens hospital on a hot day and watch the kids coming in the door because the children, who's lungs have been already damaged by the polltuion, can't breath. Those unhealthy lungs are a better ozone monitor then any instrument Wayne county or the state of MI can make. I want to send this as is. I will not even spell check it as i am afraid I will change it. Please before you tell anyone "Detroit is O.K." Go see for yourself. I do not mean to get on a soap box here but this subject is next to my heart. My own lungs sustain damage from the garbage I breathed thier as a child. I have family and friends there. Half of them suffer some kind of effect from the air they breath. Please do not write Detroit off as an area that needs help. Often in our fight to prove our case we get caught up in the numbers and ignore other evidence around us. That evidence is the daily lives of those citizens who are most effected by problem we are trying to examine. That is not as easy to measure. Beleive me those who pollute know that. so while we all not run our lawn mowers and do not light up that grill, who stops the stacks and incinerators and refineries in Detroit and Dearborn who are running with less than adeqaute contols? They are in non-compliance everyday. So Marathon agrees to sell 5% cleaner gas, what a trade off. they get to make that gas while they pollute the lungs of citizens who live in the shadow of their poorly enforced emmisions. God, I could go on and on. They just keep trading one victim for another. This is called a hostage situation. Brenda LiveOak ============================================================== ENVIRO-MICH: Internet List and Forum for Michigan Environmental and Conservation Issues and Michigan-based Citizen Action. Postings to: enviro-mich@great-lakes.net For info, send email to majordomo@great-lakes.net with a one-line message body of "info enviro-mich" ==============================================================
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