Advocates want polluters held accountable after Bear Creek, former McLouth Steel site

FOX 2 (WJBK) – Residents and advocates from across southeast Michigan held a press conference on Wednesday to shine a light on two separate pollution sites at industrial facilities. 

Advocates say the pollution from McLouth Steel site in Trenton and in Bear Creek in Warren is putting communities in harm’s way – and they want systemic reform to hold polluters accountable.

Ryan Stewart lives half a mile down the road from the former McLouth Steel plant. Years ago, there was utter elation about the cleanup, but Stewart said it really has not fully materialized.

“Why is it the case that us the taxpayer are paying for the problems that these businesses are causing,” Stewart said during the event. 

The press conference attendees and organizers are asking lawmakers to pass “Polluter Pay” bills to remove the burden of cleanup from taxpayers. 

“I value the community that I come from, I value the environment that I come from. My family has been here since the late 1800s… So when I look around and I see that large corporations and big polluters make the claim that they’re doing things for us… (There is a ) disconnect between what they say they’re doing and the reality of the situation,” Stewart said. “You can literally see the pollution leaking into the water.”

Disincentivizing dumping from corporations is the goal.

“Right now it costs them functionally nothing to dump and that will continue if we don’t change our laws,” said Christy McGillivray with Sierra Club Michigan.

Grosse Ille Township Trustee Kyle de Beausset says we can do much better.

“The former McLouth site I think is a perfect example of why we need stronger polluter pay laws. The EPA had to go in there… they had to do an emergency clean up way back in the 2010s. They did it hoping they’d be able to recover the costs but they never did,” de Beausset said. “That’s the sort of thing that the public should not be on the hook for. If someone is polluting something, they should be accountable for covering that cost.”