As if there's any more reasons needed to live in the Upper Peninsula, the
University of Michigan announced recently that research has discovered
Sault Ste. Marie to be one of the least polluted cities in the state.
The research, which uses 2006 Toxic Release Inventory data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, indicated that average toxic burden scores among Michigan ZIP codes is 56. The ZIP code with the greatest toxic burden is in Detroit, which had a score of 2,576. Sault Ste. Marie, however, scored a zero.
"We've always claimed we had a great quality of life here and we've always said this is God's Country. Now we have documentation from the University of Michigan and the EPA that proves it," says Jim Hendricks of Sault Ste. Marie's planning department and economic development corporation.
The Toxic Release Inventory, according to the EPA, was based on information self reported by local companies and then multiplied by their relative toxicity and combined with air modeling to determine how much pollution falls in every square kilometer of the state.
Other Upper Peninsula cities scored in relatively low numbers. Marquette's TRI is a 6.77, Negaunee scored a 6, while Iron Mountain scored a 4.78, Houghton scored a 0.29, St. Ignace a 2.27 and Ishpeming's TRI was reported as a 3.74. Escanaba and Menominee were by far the highest of the U.P. cities searched. Escanaba scored a 52.71 while Menominee had a 125.82.
To check how your ZIP code did, you can check out this
Detroit Free Press article and searchable database. For more information about Toxic Release Inventory, please visit the EPA site
here.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Jim Hendricks, Sault Ste. Marie EDC
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