The city issued nearly 300 blight tickets to Grand Rapids-based Green Valley Properties over two years, according to a BridgeDetroit analysis of online city records. In 2022, the city’s Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department submitted a notice to revoke the company’s 2018 land use permit for allegedly failing to secure permits for an expansion, not following its dust mitigation plan and other offenses. But the city’s blight court overruled the notice.

Green Valley’s concrete crusher, Dino-Mite Crushing and Recycling, operates on 12.3 acres in an industrial zone of the Schoolcraft Southfield neighborhood. The facility crushes stones and old concrete and creates new concrete that it stores in 45-foot-high piles.

The crushing creates silica dust, which can “irreversibly damage the lungs,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as particulate matter, microscopic particles that can enter the lungs and bloodstream and cause health issues.

Dabreda Allen has lived on Mettetal Street for 50 years and occasionally used an inhaler for her seasonal allergies until, she said, Dino-Mite opened, caking the windows of her house and car in dust. Now, the 60-year-old said she frequently needs the inhaler to breathe, while her older brother has developed a persistent cough.

Some advocates claim concrete crushing operations are proliferating in the city because low-income Black residents may be less likely to fight back. A handful of proposals in the last few years have sought to operate concrete and asphalt facilities in Detroit neighborhoods where the population is between 92-99% Black.