Detroit-The city of Detroit and Synagro Technologies have mutually agreed to terminate Synagro’s $1.2 billion contract to produce efficiencies and environmental benefits for municipal water treatment operations after one of the leading figures in a bribery scandal that surfaced last summer (GM Archives) pleaded guilty. James Rosendall Jr., a Synagro vice president, admitted in court to charges of conspiracy to bribe public officials in exchange for the sludge-recycling contract. On Jan. 29, Detroit Mayor Kenneth Cockrel asked for Synagro to terminate the contract and it agreed. Rosendall, who was earlier terminated, faces up to 11 months in jail and fines up to $200,000. Cockrel explained the city’s position as follows: “Based on the guilty plea and conviction of Rosendall and the way this contract was approved, it became clear that we needed to take immediate action to terminate this contract. It also became evident that we needed to terminate this relationship in a way to protect the city against any legal action as well as to ensure that we were able to dispose of the excess solids in an environmentally expedient way. I, like many others in this city, am looking forward to ending this sad chapter in our city’s history and ending corruption in city government.” He said Synagro has agreed not to pursue any legal action against the city for whatever reason based on the termination. The mayor said Synagro also agreed to cooperate in the short-term arrangement the Detroit Water and Sewerage Dept. (DWSD) has made for disposal of sludge material that can’t be incinerated. “We reached this mutual decision with the city because it was appropriate under the circumstances,” said Darci McConnell, a Synagro spokesperson. “We at Synagro take our legal, ethical, and environmental obligations seriously, and we are confident that the controls we have in place will ensure that inappropriate behavior will not be repeated.” Although not entirely unexpected, the developments leave DWSD scrambling. Officials confirmed arrangements have been made with an existing contractor, Homrich Inc., which already hauls city waste to landfills, to truck sludge to a landfill owned by Waste Management, which also is already under contract with the city. The city incinerates most of the sewage sludge at its waste treatment plant in southwest Detroit, but when the amount of sludge exceeds the incinerators’ capacity the remainder is sent to landfills – an arrangement the Synagro contract was supposed to replace with recycling. There was no word on a long-term strategy or replacement for the Synagro contract.
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