EXCLUSIVE: FBI Investigating Toxic Paper Mill Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer Helped Expand
FBI recently began investigating multi-billion dollar Graphic Packaging International, whose recycled paperboard plant in Kalamazoo MI has been releasing toxic levels of gas into poor Black community
Status Coup has learned that the FBI is investigating the ongoing release of toxic levels of gas by Graphic Packaging International [GPI], a multi-billion dollar consumer packing company, from its Kalamazoo, Michigan paper mill into a majority Black neighborhood—and the financial and political relationships between the company and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the state environmental department, and Kalamazoo city politicians, emails obtained by Status Coup as well as a source contacted by the FBI confirmed to Status Coup. Emails obtained by Status Coup show the matter was referred from the Department of Justice to FBI.
In the early stages of its investigation, the FBI is looking into a variety of aspects revolving around GPI: the Kalamazoo County Health Department’s alleged concealment of health data related to asthma and respiratory issues stemming from GPI’s gas emissions; the city’s alleged failure to report health complaints to the state health department for decades, city politicians alleged failure to notify residents of testing and monitoring being done for GPI gas emissions; major tax breaks and a massive bond deal Governor Whitmer’s administration approved for GPI—despite a long history of residents’ health complaints and Whitmer’s environmental department issuing air pollution violations against GPI’s Kalamazoo plant—and the lack of criminal enforcement measures the Whitmer administration implemented against GPI.
As SC reported on-the-ground in Kalamazoo in 2023, the paper mill has been releasing toxic, odorous gases into a majority Black community on the north side of Kalamazoo for decades. In 2020, Dr. David Ansell of Rush University Medical Center revealed the 49007 Zip code—which includes the Black neighborhood right next to GPI—had the worst air quality in Kalamazoo and far worse health effects than other city neighborhoods. From Mlive:
Respiratory illness rates and cancer risk in 49007 is much higher than the Kalamazoo average and twice that of the neighboring 49004 zip code, Ansell said. Asthma prevalence among neighborhood residents older than 18, between 2012 and 2014, was the highest in Kalamazoo. Asthma hospitalizations are also much higher there than in all other Kalamazoo neighborhoods, Ansell’s analysis found. Ansell’s presentation, which he gave to a city of Kalamazoo environmental concerns committee last year, states there is a “direct linear correlation between neighborhood air quality and respiratory disease.” “There is this very strong signal from that neighborhood that something is going on with regard to respiratory diseases in general, and asthma specifically,” Ansell said.
Despite years of health and odor complaints made by local residents against GPI, over a dozen air pollution and odor violations issued against GPI by the state environmental department, and medical research showing increased asthma rates and cancer risks in the minority neighborhood next to GPI, Governor Whitmer has repeatedly rewarded GPI.
In 2019, Whitmer appointed longtime Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell as a board member to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation [MEDC]—months after Hopewell approved a massive expansion plan for GPI. While in office, residents claimed Hopewell ignored year worth of complaints about GPI releasing toxic levels of gas into the poor Black community—spiking residents’ levels of asthma and COPD while staining the neighborhood with an overwhelming odor issue.
In 2020, Whitmer’s administration approved $21 million in tax breaks for GPI for its expansion. At the time of the announcement, there was no new jobs expected to be created by GPI’s expansion.
In 2021, Whitmer’s administration approved $125 million in bonds for GPI for its expansion. At the time of the announcement, there was no new jobs expected to be created by GPI’s expansion.
In April, Whitmer attended a ribbon cutting for a daycare center being opened in Kalamazoo—right down the street from GPI’s paper mill. The daycare center being constructed so close to GPI’s noxious emissions caused serious alarm for many residents and activists. Recently, national media has buzzed about Whitmer as the potential Democratic frontrunner for president in 2028.
“There’s over 30 different toxic gases and chemicals [being released],” Brandi Crawford, a former Kalamazoo resident and activist seeking justice and health protections for Kalamazoo residents, told Status Coup in 2023 about the variety of toxins being released after the paper mill expanded operations and emissions in 2022. “Sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan, toluene, and all kinds of VOCS that cause cancer.”
Ater delaying the findings of a health study for three years, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services [MDHHS] revealed in 2023 that GPI was releasing levels of hydrogen sulfide above federal regulations—yet MDHHS did not shut the plant down. Instead, MDHHS advised residents to stay inside when the odor coming from the plant is too strong—a suggestion that outraged residents. The CDC says hydrogen sulfide exposure can cause respiratory issues and eye irritation.
[While conducting the interviews outside the plant—and a block away—it was hard to breathe amidst the thick odor of gasses GPI was releasing. My cameraman and I also developed headaches, dizziness, and feelings of deliriousness that persisted ranging from days to a week (even after leaving Kalamazoo)].
WATCH our ON-THE-GROUND report from outside Kalamazoo plant in 2023:
Deann Winfield, who lives a block-and-a-half from GPI, has been devastated by the plant’s toxic pollution. Her children were healthy before the family moved a block-and-a-half from GPI; soon after, they developed severe asthma—leading to the death of Laprace, her 17-year-old daughter, in 2014 after she sufferred a severe asthma attack. “She couldn’t be saved” Winfield told Status Coup about doctors’ efforts to revive her daughter.
On top of losing her daughter, in February, Deann’s 32-year-old son Deandre died. Before moving next to GPI, Deandre was the picture of health. “Before we moved here, my son’s health was perfect; there wasn’t nothing he didn’t do…he was always going and doing,” Winfield told Status Coup in 2023. But after moving her family down the block from GPI, Deandre had a severe asthma attack that caused him to stop breathing—leaving him in a coma for five months. “The doctor said he had an asthma attack that was sos severe he stopped his heart; the same way my daughter passed,” Winfield said. Afterward, he was left on 24/7 oxygen and in-home life support. After his death in February, Winfield has made several attempts to retrieve his body, and obtain her son’s death certificate, from the Kalamazoo’s County Health Department. To date, she has received neither.
Winfield said both her son and daughter had minor cases of asthma as kids, but after moving next to GPI, both of their asthmas severely worsened leading up to their deaths. “One doctor said it [the severe asthma] could be coming from Graphic Packaging, the chemicals that are being released.”
“It smells like dead bodies, sewage, rotten eggs,” Winfield told Status Coup in 2023 about the smell coming from GPI’s plant. “You can’t even open up your windows; the stuff is coming through your windows, you’re steady coughing, you’re steady rubbing your eyes, your eyes burn.” Winfield also described chronic asthma, and headaches, she and her family experience living next to the paper mill. “We need somebody to start caring about our lives; our lives is important just like the rich people.”
In response to Governor Whitmer’s approval of GPI’s expansion in 2021, Winfield said “I think they are all in cahoots with each other…they don’t care if we live or we die.”
Since GPI’s expansion in 2022, most local residents don’t allow their children outside to play and local schools don’t allow children to play outside during recess. After expansion, the odor has spread beyond the Black northside neighborhood, affecting whiter neighborhoods on the west side of Kalamazoo.
Since first reporting on this story in 2023, Status Coup has repeatedly contacted Governor Whitmer’s office seeking answers on why, given years of health and odor complaints from the Black community, her administration approved over $100 million dollars in bonds for GPI’s expansion—to date, Whitmer’s office has never answered (nor have they commented to other media outlets).
Governor Whitmer, Kalamazoo Mayor David Anderson, and Graphic Packing International did not respond to Status Coup’s request for comment.
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