The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
MCATS takes on global warming
Activist group was formed in 1989 to fight hazardous waste
By Brian Cox, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: April 12, 2007
They emerged and organized more than 15 years ago to fight the development of a hazardous waste incinerator and landfill just outside of Milan in Augusta Township.
Advertisement
At that time, Michigan Citizens Against Toxic Substances was a David taking on the developer Envotech's Goliath. The volunteer-run MCATS once brought an estimated 5,000 people to an Environmental Protection Agency hearing about the proposed toxic waste incinerator, according to some reports.
A decade later, on the last day of 1997, Envotech withdrew its application to build the incinerator and landfill. MCATS had scored a monumental environmental victory that remains a hallmark of grassroots activism.
Now the group is revving up to bring attention to carbon build up in the atmosphere and is launching a "Carbon Warning" campaign during the month of April.
"MCATS has always gotten great support in the community and this is why, by working together, we've always been successful," said the group's president Jerry Renning.
The new campaign includes events such as a tire pressure check April 14, a free viewing of the Al Gore documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" April 16, and a community tree planting effort April 21.
"These events were designed to help people understand that carbon saturation is a danger to all of us," said Rod Hill, MCATS public relations chair and an announced candidate for Milan mayor.
MCATS members will be at area service stations April 14 to check vehicles' tire pressure, which can save gas and reduce the carbon produced when driving. Members will be staked out between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at Ivan's Standard Service on Dexter Street and Mullins Auto Supply and Service on County Street.
A frees showing of Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," which Hill describes as "the most accessible plain-language documentary ever produced on what carbon-saturation is doing to our world," will air at Campfire Restaurant 6:30 p.m. April 16.
In the mid-1990s, MCATS members joined with other organizations such as Kiwanis, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts to plant trees and shrubs in the US-23 cloverleaf at Carpenter and Plank Roads. The trees now are more than a dozen feet high.
A little more than 10 years later, MCATS plans to do it again.
The group purchased 300 seedlings to plant in the City of Milan and around Milan schools in celebration of Arbor Day April 21.
"MCATS' goal is to continue to make Milan a better, more harmonious place to live," said Renning. "Getting the community together, like the old barn-raising concept, and planting trees helps us enjoy Milan as a warm, wonderful place to live."
The tree-planting will take place 10 a.m. April 21. Volunteers will meet at Wilson Park behind the Milan Fire Station before breaking up into groups to plant wind break, shade trees, and boundary definitions in the area.
"MCATS has a history of empowering citizens to action," said Liz Waffle, a long-time MCATS activist. "We have taken on a lot of environmental threats over the years and we've been very successful in defeating them."
It seems appropriate then that today there is a tree on the south side of the Milan Public Library dedicated to the work of MCATS.
Staff Writer Brian Cox can be reached at 429-7380 or bcox@heritage.com.
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
Staff Blog, "Inside The Newsroom"
TOP JOBS
