Dear Governor Whitmer,

Do you know that, while we all support the need to “fix the damn roads,” the way this is being done is unintentionally creating another environmental injustice in Flint? Ajax Paving Industries wants to build an asphalt plant across the street from a predominantly Black and low-income community in north Flint. Asphalt plants have been shown to cause more cancer and asthma, make the air stinky and dusty, destroy local roads with heavy truck traffic, and depress property values. Residents won’t be able to escape the bad smell, pollution and poorer quality of life. We cannot take one more environmental injustice - and you can stop it!

There’s a place for this plant. It isn’t here. Fixing the roads shouldn’t be done at the expense of people’s lives. Would you want to move your family next to the sickening smell of burning oil and toxic asphalt fumes? If Ajax’s permit to build is approved, they will build the plant near thousands of residents in Flint Housing Commission’s largest public housing complex, privately-owned low-income townhomes, a senior assisted living facility, and single family homes on both the Genesee Township and Flint sides. Creating a new toxic plant here is a slap in the face for Flint. Couldn’t the State use its EGLE Brownfield Division resources to subsidize the development of Ajax’s plant somewhere far from where people live, on a brownfield?

Environmental justice policies in Michigan are failing and do not address how people experience exposure to pollution. The State needs to take into account all of the sources of pollution hurting residents near the proposed plant site (known as “cumulative burden”) and use the precautionary principle by not allowing the plant to exist unless it is first proven safe.

We are asking the State to be fair. This is not fair. We demand that you use your authority as Governor to stop this environmental injustice before it becomes permanent, and honor the environmental justice promises you ran on during your campaign for governor. “Fix the damn roads” is a good slogan, but the state should have expected environmental justice consequences and worked to prevent them. Stop the Ajax permit (APP-2021-0019) from being approved. It’s the right thing to do.