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Stops the Burn Coalition Helps Extinguish Trash Burner

Comprehensive Recycling Programs Next Goal

By Brad van Guilder
June/July Issue, 2004

Earth Day 2004 brought truly great news to all opponents of the Central Wayne trash incinerator. The Central Wayne County Sanitation Authority (CWCSA) on April 22 announced a plan to permanently close the Dearborn Heights facility. The news was enthusiastically welcomed by members of the Stop the Burn Coalition, led by the Ecology Center, Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, and area residents, who will now redouble their efforts to institute a comprehensive recycling program for the affected communities.

Few could have been more pleased than Cheryl Graunstadt, a Westland city council member and most consistent, longtime critic of the facility and advocate for recycling. Her tireless efforts have earned her the Michigan Recycling Coalition’s 2004 Chair’s Choice Award, which will be presented on May 27.

The status of the incinerator has been unclear since it abruptly closed in Aug. 2003 because the firm that operates the facility – Central Wayne Energy Recovery Limited Partnership (CWERLP) – defaulted on an $80 million bond. CWERLP, which also owes Dearborn Heights $1 million in back taxes and water bills, filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 29, 2003. While the CWCSA’s board was apparently trying to restart the facility in closed-door meetings with potential contractors, representatives from the Ecology Center and Sierra Club helped shape a public discussion of fiscally and environmentally responsible alternatives.

The incinerator, built in the 1960s and upgraded in the mid-‘80s, was retrofitted in 1998 to a “waste-to-energy” facility. In addition to handling 300 tons of garbage per day from Dearborn Heights, Garden City, Inkster, Wayne, and Westland, more than half the waste burned at the Central Wayne incinerator came from outside sources, some as far away as Arizona. Despite the upgrade the incinerator had violated its state air permit more than 1,200 times in the last four years (see “Landfills in the Sky,” From the Ground Up, March/April 2004).

The Stop the Burn Coalition originally formed in the mid-‘90s to prevent the costly retrofit of the facility in favor of closing it. The Coalition again began advocating for alternatives almost two years ago, and in March 2003, the Ecology Center and Clean Water Action helped generate more than 400 letters from residents to the mayor and city council of Westland calling for a comprehensive recycling program instead of the costly burner. Outrage over high costs, frequent operational problems, and numerous environmental violations have led Westland residents to twice vote down millages to pay for debts associated with the facility.

The CWCSA is now attempting to get out of its expensive 35-year contract with CWERLP by effectively borrowing $8 million from Waste Management of Michigan. WMM will be paid back through a 20-year landfill contract at a rate of about $20 per ton. The CWCSA currently has a short-term contract with WMM at $13 per ton. Despite the increased landfill costs this is still far cheaper than operation of the incinerator. The five communities expect to save about $50 million over the 20-year contract for about 105,000 tons of trash each year.

The CWCSA’s plan does not currently include a recycling program. The Coalition argues that this transition is the time for the CWCSA to invest in comprehensive, curbside recycling. A modern Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) could be built with the savings and even with grant assistance to create more jobs and secondary jobs in reusing the material recovered. Recycling is the environmentally responsible solution and a comprehensive program on average does not cost more than landfilling. The CWCSA should take the next step and create the best recycling program in Wayne County – now is the time!

Brad van Guilder is the Ecology Center’s Wayne County organizer

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