(soft music) - [Nicole] This is a common site in a West Side neighborhood of Detroit.

A constant flow of trucks and dust around heavy industry.

A concrete crusher in a residential neighborhood.

I got interested in this more than a year ago when I learned about a proposed concrete crusher in the core city neighborhood of Detroit, not far from downtown.

- I'll say core, you say city.

All right?

Core.

- [Nicole] Here, neighbor's mobilized.

- Core.

- City.

- Core.

- [Nicole] They stopped the construction before it started.

(all clapping) I make films about Detroit and how our city is changing, and how that change affects residents, who is coming and who is leaving the city.

Lately, I found that a lot of Detroiters don't want to continue living next to heavy industry, expanding nearby.

And so, they're taking a stand.

This led me to the Schoolcraft neighborhood.

- So, we're very happy and proud of our community.

And the greatest asset is our residents.

- [Nicole] The Schoolcraft neighborhood is bordered to the North by Schoolcraft Road and Home of Detroit Roller Wheels, a popular spot for skaters.

(music plays in background) On the south side is the I-96 freeway, and there's Dino-Mite Crushing and Recycling where mountains of material can be seen even from the other side of the freeway.

- The Schoolcraft neighborhood is 99% black residents, and residents that have been there for decades.

And in 2019, a company Green Valley slash Dino-Mite Concrete Crushing got a permit to crush hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete at this 12 acre site directly across from residents.

- I think our lack of knowledge in what is entailed in a concrete crushing operation is hard for us to say, okay, y'all need to stop this and do that.

We can just only tell 'em the problems we're having.

And hopefully, they can figure out some way to improve that.

- [Nicole] Many problems stem from the dust.

Like, a constant residue on Carol Couch's new car.

- You see all this?

In here?

This is the first time we ever had a problem in 45 years.

Just happened when this company got up there.

- I don't know if you can see that.

- It's in the air.

Can you prove it's coming from them?

But it's more dusk in the air now than it has been.

- That's not good.

- [Nicole] Concrete dust and dirt.

- Oh man- - [Nicole] Collecting on one of the main thoroughfares.

- I think it's the mud and the concrete mix.

And when it gets on there, you can't dry it.

It dries on its own.

And once it dries, you cannot remove it from the car.

- You know, there's a lot of pride in our community.

It doesn't make me feel good to tell somebody take 96 to Greenfield on your way to my house because I know that they're gonna pass this dust laden area.

It's an embarrassment.

- [Nicole] And what would you say is the truck traffic?

- I will say from, maybe, seven in the morning to at least five in the evening.

- Right.

Around seven to five heavy- - [Aaron] Seven and five, heavy.

- [George] It's just very heavy.

- And what happens?

So, trucks come in with materials.

Trucks go out with materials.

- And mud, and they're everywhere.

- It was very clear to me that they were in violation of the Fugitive Dust Ordinance.

- The Schoolcraft neighborhood, it's part of City Council member, James Tate's district.

- And so, we would see some days where there are wind storms that are happening and you would see, you know, it looks like the Wizard of Oz, you know, when Dorothy's house is going up in the air 'cause you see all this dust.

- That area is zoned for manufacturing.

- That one little spot there?

- Right.

The perimeter, the Greenfield Fullerton intersection is zoned for heavy manufacturing.

They're legally there.

- But then you've got people living really close by.

- But then we've got people living two blocks away.

- [Nicole] Residents say that trucks don't always stay on the designated routes.

Curtis Jackson says some come by his house despite the posted signs.

- Blunders about them coming out here, tearing up this pavement, and potholes gonna come.

Yeah, you tear up your vehicle.

And this out of pocket expense.

- [Nicole] Neither Dino-Mite's representative, nor the company's attorney have answered my request to talk about problems in the neighborhood.

- The first thing I noticed about it was where the dusting area.

- [Nicole] For retired police detective, Eugene Owens, Dino-Mite was a mystery that he had to investigate.

- And then I kept looking at the thing and I was wondering, I say, you know, what is it?

'Cause it's got a big mountain of dirt and you got bulldozers.

- [Nicole] So, when did you notice that?

- Oh, that was a couple of years ago.

So, I started looking into it.

We found out that they were actually crushing concrete.

So, I said something don't seem right about that.

So, we started inquiring how did this place get here?

- Did you or the community group receive notice that the Dino-Mite crusher would open here?

- I did not.

- No.

No.

- I did not.

- Originally, they had put in as a garden supply.

- They advertised landscaping supplies, you know, lawnmowers, snowblowers, rakes shovels, wheelbarrows, you know, you name it.

- So, you did get some forewarning about the landscape supply opening.

- I was well informed of that.

Yeah.

- And you did you contest that?

- No.

- No.

No one contested that.

Yeah.

Because I mean, that was a good proposal, you know, because it touted jobs, you know, for the community.

Sounds great.

- [Nicole] The city did grant a permit for both the landscape supply store and the concrete crusher.

But everyone we talked to in the community, they never knew about the crusher until it started operating.

According to a Detroit ordinance, facilities like Dino-Mite, they only need to notify residents within 300 feet of the business.

- Emissions and dust doesn't just stop at 300 feet.

Emissions from asphalt and concrete mixing plants can travel one to two miles.

- The Greenfield supply company, that was a negotiation with the community and that's how it came about.

So, that was secondary.

- But were they notified that there'd be concrete crushing, that there'd be piles of aggregate?

- So, in terms of what they were notified on in terms of what it would look like, I can't say today.

And I say this again, as a resident and as a district council member, what I can say is the notices went out on what the project was.

- Okay.

- But as we always know, looking at it on paper and what it actually turns into, sometimes, doesn't translate the same.

- [Nicole] In general, there are notifications of proposed developments in the neighborhoods.

But how many residents are actually informed?

And do they know how to find out about it?

- Yeah, public notice regarding these things is often scattershot.

People often don't know exactly what's happening.

And by the time they do, either decisions already been made or it's about to be made or it's just more or less too late.

- [Nicole] It's late September, 2023.

- Okay, let's keep it, let's keep it down, please.

- [Nicole] This is the Schoolcraft Improvement Association's monthly meeting.

- All that dust that's going on Greenfield, that has to stop.

- BridgeDetroit has found that this city has cited the company operating Dino-Mite with nearly 300 blight violations over the last few years.

Now, George Perdue has news from BCD, the City Buildings and Safety Department, which is taking the Dino-Mite company to court over some recent violations.

- The city took Dino-Mite to court with seven, seven violations.

Seven.

And guess what?

- [Nicole] The alleged violations include failing to maintain an effective fugitive dust plan, illegally expanding its operations, failing to provide a technical report and to secure the proper permits.

The court said, however, that the crushing operation was in substantial compliance with the conditions of the land use grant.

And so, revoking the land use grant is not reasonable under the circumstances.

- And I brought up the point of silica.

- [Nicole] At the meeting, Eugene Owens explains the hazards of concrete dust.

- And when you do concrete crushing, silica is spread into the air.

One of them, when you read online from the federal government about silica, one of the first things they tell you is that once it's in your lungs, it's there for life.

- The American Lung Association says that microscopic particles will lodge deep in the lungs.

And too much silica can be fatal.

An occupational health expert we spoke to said diseases like lung cancer and silicosis, they're not likely to appear in the short term.

It can take decades of heavy exposure.

The bigger concern is for those living nearby with asthma and emphysema.

They can have serious reactions from far less exposure.

And breathing in any dust is not recommended for anyone.

- Cement, concrete is 20 to 40% silica.

So, when you see a picture of dust in the air, is it silica which is more hazardous, or is it other types of dust?

So, that's the first question you want to ask.

- [Nicole] So, what's really in the dust?

Residents we talk to, don't know.

- There isn't testing that is required of what is in the dust that's coming from this concrete crushing operation.

But their permit does allow them a certain percentage of visible opacity.

So, they are permitted to cloud the air to some degree so we know that there is particulate matter in the air in that neighborhood.

- A lot of people don't know what's going on up there.

- [Nicole] At the meeting this night, is Pam Weinstein from Detroit's Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood.

- She's a fighter.

- [Nicole] Weinstein helps stop a hot mix asphalt plant from locating in Grandmont Rosedale in 2022.

- Now, the difference is the permit hadn't been granted.

Your issue is that the permit was granted, which is very typical.

That's what we found.

The initial presentation that they brought about this asphalt.

Oh, it's just like baking a cake, they said.

Not any cake I'd want to eat.

- [Nicole] Meanwhile, Dino-Mite says that it keeps trying to reduce the dust.

It runs a street cleaner in regular intervals, and it wants to pave the site, which the company says will reduce some of the dust.

- Good morning once again.

This is our 10:00 AM hearing.

- [Nicole] The company asked permission to do this from the city in a hearing last October.

Chris Jackson represents Dino-Mite touting the operation.

- The recycling facility employs over 30 full-time jobs and supports over 20 direct trucking jobs that my client employs.

And of course hundreds of other trucking jobs that are associated with the various companies that used the facility.

This site was previously an abandoned industrial site that Mr. Calo has turned into a very viable business.

- [Nicole] It's Anthony Calo's name that appears in the Dino-Mite business records that are filed with the state.

The Dino-Mite site had been a lumber yard going back to at least the 1930s.

The site was also a coal yard for a while.

- Can you please unmute yourself?

- Hi.

Good morning.

- [Nicole] Resident spoke at the hearing too.

- On the behind the dirt hill.

I didn't even know they were opening up such a place in my neighborhood.

My son, he has asthma.

He's on a breathing machine.

I had no idea that this facility would be open up here.

I would've totally been against that.

- [Nicole] In the Schoolcraft neighborhood, the city's denied the company's request to pave the site.

And the city is appealing the ruling on Dino-Mite's violations, which could possibly shut the crusher down.

The fight against heavy industry continues.

- The more that these cases are brought up and supported by decision makers, then I believe it could set a precedence and it could start a trend in a direction where human health is being considered by decision makers rather than sort of profit.

- What they're doing is great.

You know, they're recycling concrete.

Where would that concrete go if it wasn't being recycled?

So, we agree totally with that operation.

However, the location.

You know, it's always location.

Location, location, location.

This is not the location for a concrete crusher.

This isn't the location.