Community Residents:

Happy 2022! We hope you and your families had an enjoyable and safe holiday season.

As we start this New Year, we wanted to give you an update on the status of the work that has been done to address odor concerns raised in the community.

Today, Stellantis submitted a comprehensive report, detailing the results of our odor investigation, analysis and modeling, to the Air Quality Division (AQD) of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). That submission also included our action plan for mitigating potential odors.

As you know, we retained the services of an environmental engineering company with odor investigation expertise to support our efforts in identifying potential odor sources. Over a period of 13 days in October and November, they collected 152 odor samples from 42 different potential sources in and around the facility for analysis.

Using those results, a second third-party specialty engineering firm completed dispersion modeling, which was used to predict the potential odor impact from specific sources at the facility, and evaluated the effectiveness of proposed mitigation strategies.

The modeling results identified a number of corrective actions that, once implemented, will ensure that odors do not reach the community. The mitigation plan includes implementation of the following initiatives in specific areas of the paint shop:

• Routing ducting to the existing emissions control system as required in the air permit was completed on Dec. 19, ahead of schedule. Odors generated from the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the exhaust will now be reduced by thermal oxidation in the emission control system.

• Installing a completely new and dedicated regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) and ducting. The exhaust from two existing stacks will be routed to this new system to destroy odor contributing compounds.

• Routing the clean air exhaust from the existing concentrator to the stack of the new RTO to improve dispersion through increased velocity and height. The concentrator removes VOCs and “concentrates” them into smaller volumes so the RTO can destroy them more efficiently.

• Utilizing odor reducing technologies as needed in specific areas that have been identified as minor odor contributing sources.

We are proceeding with the engineering and procurement necessary to complete these actions, including specification of long lead items like the RTO. A timeline for completion of these activities will depend, in part, on the outcome of discussions with EGLE regarding permitting requirements and deadlines imposed through the enforcement process. However, our objective remains on correcting this issue as soon as is possible.

Even as we work to address these concerns, air quality monitoring is ongoing and we will continue to share this data with you quarterly. During last month’s Neighborhood Advisory Council Update meeting, we presented 2021 sampling data performed by both Stellantis and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the first time. This data shows that the odors reaching the community do not present a health risk to you, your families or your neighbors. In case you missed the meeting and would like to review the presentation, it can be found here.

We want to thank you for your patience in giving us the opportunity to fully investigate this issue and put a plan in place that we believe will resolve any remaining concerns.

Thank you,

Michael Brieda
Plant Manager
Detroit Assembly Complex – Mack