Detroit council votes to retain Synagro

Detroit-The city council has decided to take the advice it’s been getting from the experts and leave the $47 million contract Synagro Technologies has with the Detroit Water and Sewage District in place. The council voted 4-2 against rescinding the agreement just before recessing until early September. The governing panel had been told by the city legal department, and then in a review opinion by its own research and analysis division, that there was no legal basis to act because Synagro had not violated the terms of the contract. Those rulings were backed up by DWSD officials, who opposed taking away the contract for those same reasons and also because of the high costs of finding a replacement or doing without. DWSD Public Affairs Manager said the departure of Synagro would have required ramping up with more incineration and finding someone else to take care of land application and landfill disposal. Houston-based Synagro claims its technology and services provide much needed environmental benefits to Detroit, especially the residents of the southwestern part of the city, who have been long burdened by the affects of an obsolete incinerator. Synagro is replacing the obsolete multi-hearth incinerators with new state-of-the-art fluidized bed technology, which will reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than 65 percent. According to DWSD, Synagro is still in the process of obtaining the necessary permits for construction. As part of the contract Synagro has the option of pellitization, diverting materials from landfills to land-application recycling, which the company believes will also save the city millions of dollars. The office of Barbara-Rose Collins, one of two on the council to vote for rescinding, told Green Markets the Synagro contract will continue under the scrutiny of the research and analysis staff. “Currently there has been no breach,” an assistant, who asked not to be identified, stated. “But the research department will be monitoring the contract as it does with all city contracts to see if a breach occurs.” Local authorities are being investigated for having accepted payments from a former Synagro official who was lobbying to get the contract approved.