Detroit: Burn on
City Eyes Purchase of Incinerator

By Eric T. Campbell
The Michigan Citizen

DETROIT — Detroit is negotiating the purchase of the city’s incinerator.

In a letter obtained by the Michigan Citizen, dated May 12, Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams, chair of the Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Authority (GDRRA) discussed terms of a purchase or lease with current incinerator owners, Energy Investors Funds (EIF) of Boston, MA.

In the document, Adams, speaking as Chairman of GDRRA, says that EIF has expressed an interest in selling the facility. To ease the deal, EIF will provide $45 million financing in capital improvements. Adams gives three reasons why the $45 million is too high a price and proposes a purchase price of $30 million “given the uncertainties associated with the future operation of the facility.”

The letter is to be discussed in an executive closed session with members of City Council Thursday, May 15, at 2:30 pm. Council woman Alberta Tinsley-Talabi authored the council resolution calling for the closed session. The resolution says the purpose of the session is to consult with the Mayor’s office and representatives of GDRRA “as it relates to the potential purchase and/or lease” of the incinerator. The Law Department and attorneys from Council Research and Analysis Division are also to be present.

Until now, Adams, who is Chairman of the Authority charged with overseeing incinerator operations, has never mentioned the purchasing of the Facility as an option.

Brad Van Guilder, of the Ecology Center, is concerned that any closed session will put the City Council at a disadvantage.

“Who on the City Council will be informed enough to ask the critical questions of the Mayor?” asks Van Guilder.

The City of Detroit has been paying debt on the incinerator for the last 17 years but that debt will be paid off in 2009 when the lease on the facility is up. The Michigan Citizen reported earlier that it was that burden of debt that forced the levying of the annual $300 trash fee. Taxes alone could not carry the debt.

The service contract, which has bound the city and its waste disposal services to the incinerator, is also due to expire. It is unclear how GDRRA’s purchase of the facility would affect the service contract with the city or the new solid waste resolution recently passed by City Council over the Mayor’s veto.

That resolution includes a pledge by council to reject any budget for Detroit Public Works (DPW) unless the incinerator is removed from the city’s waste disposal strategy.

City Council Fiscal Analyst, Irvin Corley, and members of City Council have submitted formal inquiries to the DPW and GDRRA in an attempt to change city disposal of solid waste.

Corley says that nearly $3.8 million is the current estimated cost to start up a pilot curbside recycling program. That would divert money from the city’s tipping fee to GDRRA. The cost estimate is part of a new business model (NBM) drafted with the help of members of a coalition for recycling.

Brad Van Guilder of the Ecology Center says that despite DPW Head Alfred Jordan’s attempts to characterize the new plan as financially unattainable, the initial stage of the model is modest in scope. It calls for the addition of three trucks able to offer curbside recyclable pickup to 10% of Detroit households. The plan would then expand yearly.

According to Corley, the Mayor, as chief administrator, could still decide to back down on the plan even if Council puts money into the budget for it.

Council would then be forced to take legal action to enforce the new solid waste plan. Legal action could possibly put the process beyond the presumed June 1 deadline to act on the incinerator. Despite the passage of the City Council resolution and attempts to provide specific budget cost estimates, the Mayor’s office could still resist the effort to shut down the incinerator.

“The budget is just a plan,” Corley says.

The question no one seems to be able to answer is why is the Mayor’s office holding onto the possibility of renewing operating contracts with incinerator owners. From Adams’ letter it appears, the reason could be because the new incinerator owners may be the GDRRA.

Meanwhile, a well attended public rally held Tuesday night, May 13, demonstrated the frustration and possible confusion over decisions the City of Detroit will soon make regarding the operation of the Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Facility (GDRRF) and the incinerator.

The meeting was sponsored by the Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength (MOSES) and other area organizers in anticipation of the June 1 deadline for proposed action on the incinerator by the city.

Approximately 150 people filled a meeting hall at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Detroit and demanded a commitment from public officials to stop negotiations to renew incinerator contracts and begin a pilot curbside recycling program. Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams was shouted down during his presentation of the Mayor’s position on the issue, with portions of the crowd chanting “Yes or No?” when he hesitated to respond to the recycling commitment.

It was unclear whether the majority of participants were aware that only a program, not a budget, is part of a resolution passed recently by a majority of City Council members.

At the public rally, Deputy Mayor Adams consented to the idea of curbside recycling for the coming fiscal year but not before arguing that contractual obligations make the incinerator closure process difficult.