There aren't hundreds of demonstrators marching through the streets of Detroit, carrying signs and shouting slogans. There are no daring activists scaling the Ambassador Bridge and the Renaissance Center to unfurl protest banners. And there are no marathon public hearings that attract overflow crowds of people willing to wait until the wee hours of the morning to have their opinions heard.

That's the way things were two decades ago when a collection of Cass Corridor poets, artists and musicians formed the Evergreen Alliance and joined with mainstream environmentalists, activist lawyers and the province of Ontario in an attempt to keep America's largest municipal waste incinerator from firing up.

They didn't succeed. The incinerator has been fully operational since 1989, burning the city's garbage (as well as trash trucked in from the suburbs) to produce steam and electricity in a process known as "waste to energy."

That power has come at a heavy price. When what's formally known as the Detroit Resource Recovery Facility turns 20 next year, the city's taxpayers will have shelled out a total of about $1.2 billion to pay off bonds issued to finance construction costs and install upgraded air-pollution control equipment, according to a study done by the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor.

The retirement of those bonds presents Detroit with a once-in-a-generation opportunity. It can continue burning its waste, or it can move instead to a model that places an intense focus on recycling, with the remainder being sent to landfills.

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's administration says it wants to increase recycling rates regardless of the incinerator's status. Critics, however, are skeptical of just how intense those efforts will be if the burner remains in operation. As the city's population continues to drop, there is a corresponding decrease in the amount of garbage being generated - garbage needed to keep the turbines turning.

Industry representative Ted Michaels calls that argument a "red herring."

But this is not just about recycling. There are big questions about how much it will cost to continue using the incinerator. Although taxpayers will have finally paid it off next year, the city no longer owns it. The facility was sold to private investors back in 1991. It was a complicated deal, but the bottom line was that city government received $54 million in cash to help cover a budget deficit. In return, it leased the facility and paid enough in disposal or "tipping" fees to make sure the bond payments were met.

The city now has the option to buy the facility back. Or it could continue to lease. But, so far, the Kilpatrick administration is refusing to disclose what the costs of those decisions might be.

Full Story: http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=12836

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