A Detroit City Council member wants Stellantis officials to appear before council to explain why residents are continuing to smell noxious odors from one of the company’s Jeep plants on the east side despite a reported fix for the issue.
Friday’s announcement from Council Member Latisha Johnson, who represents District 4, comes less than three weeks after the company issued a letter to residents saying that installation was completed on the equipment needed to address the chronic odor issues.
“Despite installation of an additional Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO) at the Stellantis Mack Assembly plant, noxious odors continue to emanate from the facility. In fact, residents report the smell has become worse,” Johnson said in her statement. “I request that Stellantis immediately investigate the continued source of these odors. Was the RTO installed correctly? Is the equipment not working properly? Are there additional problems at the plant causing these odors?”
Johnson also referenced an earlier resolution she had put forward and council passed asking the Duggan administration, state officials and Stellantis to take additional action, including offering home buyouts at fair market value and having homes retrofitted with air filters and other equipment at company expense.
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“I ask that Stellantis come before Detroit City Council and report on the continued source of odor, and address efforts to relieve our impacted residents. The people in this community deserve to be treated like the valuable Detroiters they are,” Johnson said.
Gary Gray, Johnson’s chief of staff, said Friday that Johnson and other members of her team went to the neighborhood near the plant this past week and smelled the odor for themselves. Gray said it was raining at the time so the odor might have dissipated a bit while they were there, but it was definitely detectable. He said he can’t confirm that the odor is worse than before the company said the equipment was installed.
A message seeking comment was sent to spokespeople for Stellantis.
In a letter to residents in late June, Linda Trbizan, Stellantis senior vice president and head of North America Assembly Operations, said the installation work at the Detroit Assembly Complex-Mack plant had been completed.
“Today, we are pleased to report that installation is complete, and the system is now fully operational to remove odors from sources identified through our investigation. The exhaust from two existing stacks will be routed to this new system to destroy odor contributing compounds. Additionally, actual volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions will be reduced through this process,” the letter said.
The company, which owns the Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands, has said numerous times before that it is committed to “making this right” in terms of the odor issue.
Jill Greenberg, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, also known as EGLE, said the department received a complaint of paint odor on July 12 and that the department did send staff out to investigate. However, the investigator did not detect odors at an enforceable level.
“EGLE takes any complaints seriously, and we continue to respond to any odor complaints we receive and obviously we’re mindful of the consent order and … (we’re) working to make sure that Stellantis adheres to it,” Greenberg said, referencing an administrative consent order finalized in December designed to address the odor issue. She said the state intends to hold the company accountable.
She said a pollution reporting hotline at 800-292-4706 is available for residents to report odors or pollution concerns anywhere in the state and the department will investigate them.
The odors at the Mack plant, one of two plants that make up the company’s Detroit Assembly Complex, have been a major source of complaint from some residents. They say that the odors, which have previously been described as metallic or like paint, have degraded the quality of their lives. The issue has sparked allegations of environmental racism, and a $5,000 fine announced in connection with a May violation notice by EGLE was referred to as a “joke” by one environmental activist, according to previous Free Press reporting.
Free Press staff writer Bill Laytner contributed to this report.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.
