CALL TO ACTION:

A local mother and environmental justice advocate is calling for a federal investigation into the City of Kalamazoo and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) after uncovering a decade-long public health crisis affecting low-income Black residents.

Brandi Crawford, who moved to Kalamazoo in 2012 for the Kalamazoo Promise scholarship program, is the lead whistleblower exposing a pattern of toxic gas exposure, lead contamination, government retaliation, and systemic civil rights violations.

Crawford, who is white, developed severe asthma and eye damage from years of exposure to hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) and other pollutants, discovered that a 2009 gas study at Kalamazoo Wastewater Treatment Plant—but the City never fixed the problem or informed residents.

Instead, the City of Kalamazoo who is the only city with a Foundation of Excellence that donates hundreds of millions of dollars to them.

Failed to warn the public despite conducting air monitoring
Continued to allow toxic levels of hydrogen sulfide, with recent levels reaching 20 ppb—more than 14x the federal health limit

City is building new housing around the plants, putting more humans in danger. Even against the direction of the County Housing Director. State Senator McCann is championing it.

New report from 11/24 shows most of the toxic gas leaks are still coming from the City of Kalamazoo Water Reclamation plant.

Despite hundreds of air complaints from residents and hospital staff, no serious enforcement occurred until Crawford talked with locals news, protested and ordered her own toxicology report showing severe risk to employees and residents in Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo has the had the highest black baby death rate for over 20 years and most babies live near the waste water plant. The City even send a cease and desist letter to reporters to stop talking about their air quality in 2018, for fear it will ruin their reputation.

In 2023, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) conducted a health consultation confirming serious risk to public health. However, the department’s response was to advise residents to stay indoors—a response Crawford calls “inhumane.”

Even worse, MDHHS referred Crawford to a state contractor for lead abatement in 2013, who had nine previous violations and made her lead levels 12 times worse. The MDHHS toxicology manager who released the toxic gas exposure report, is married to EGLE’s Deputy Director—raising serious conflict-of-interest concerns.plans and lack of enforcement. "People are still getting sick.”

Crawford is now seeking civil rights legal representation to sue the City of Kalamazoo and is calling on the EPA, HUD, and U.S. Department of Justice to open a formal investigation into environmental racism, housing discrimination, and civil rights suppression in Kalamazoo.