The World's Largest Incinerator

FACTS ON DETROIT'S INCINERATOR: THE WORLD'S LARGEST

OPENING DELAYED...BUT IT'S BURNING! Detroit's $478 million trash incinerator, capable of burning 3,6000 tons of trash per day, was scheduled to open officially in May, 1989, but due to mechanical flaws, along with the failure of every state toxicity test, an official opening date has not been decided. But, of course, since December 1988 it has been burning anyway, running on its test permit. Clearly, it is unable to pass the requirements necessary to apply for an operating permit.

IN THE HEART OF THE CITY: Located at the southeast junction of the I-94 and I-75 freeways, it is situated within a region already designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as a "non-attainment area" (which means that the level of pollutants already exceeds allowable standards and that further air polluting industry should not be introduced to the area.) It is one mile north of the Eastern Market and just a few blocks east of Wayne State University and the Cultural Center.

CITIZENS NOT HEARD: People living in this area had no say in the decision to build the incinerator. Even though residents and environmentalists have voiced vehement opposition to it for the past three and a half years, construction proceeded unabated while the City consistently refused to investigate safer alternatives to the waste crisis. Any attempts to discuss this problem with either the city administration or the City Council were road-blocked by the Mayor's office.

THE APARTHEID AND NUCLEAR CONNECTIONS: According to City of Detroit statutes, the City may not do business with companies involved with the oppressive South African regime, yet the major contractor for the Detroit incinerator is Combustion Engineering, a known contractor with the South African government. Combustion Engineering was also in the business of building nuclear power plants. It was a primary contractor on the ill-fated Fermi I plant, which nearly melted down, and is one of the contractors on the Fermi II plant, currently designated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as one of the nation's most dangerous nuclear reactors.

POLLUTION: Among the poisonous substances coming out of the stack are: lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and the deadly chemical compounds known as dioxins or furans. Although additional pollution controls (the bag house and scrubbers) would cut back on some of the pollutants emitted into the air, they will not contain the emissions of mercury, dioxins or furans. In September 1989, the incinerator significantly failed air emissions tests conducted by an independent CHicago firm, CAE, on behalf of the City, Combustion Engineering and the Wayne County Air Pollution COntrol Commission. Gas leaving the stack tested four times higher than the allowable level in mercury and 30% higher than the allowable level in hydrogen Chloride. Mercury is a known mutagen which destroys the nervous system in animals and humans. Hydrogen Chloride is a major component in the production of both acid rain and dioxin. Despite these failures, the Wayne County Air Pollution Control Commission, the DNR and the EPA refuse to shut this plant down.

HEALTH RISKS: These pollutants will cause cancer, respiratory ailments, skin diseases, birth defects and more. Dioxin, one of the most dangerous compounds known to humankind, is considered a cancer enhancer because it works to suppress the immune system and make the body more susceptible to carcinogens. According to the final Health Risk Assessment of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, 19 people per million will die as a result of this incinerator. Previous conflicting Health Risk Assessments stated that anywhere from 1,000 to 38 people per million would die. Considering that the toxins from the incinerator will combine with the many other contaminants already existing in this area, the number will likely be much higher than their final estimate.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEVASTATION: Airborne pollutants will further contaminate the Great Lakes and contribute significantly to the problems of acid rain, toxic chemical rain and greenhouse effect. They will also wreak untold havoc on the fish and other wildlife in the region. For example, the incinerator is already one of the highest sources of mercury emissions in the state of Michigan. Mercury is considered a "biocide" that harms all living things.

WORKERS AFFECTED: The toxic ash produced during test burns, conducted since December 1988, caused adverse health effects to workers on the site, prompting three separate walkouts. Workers complained of skin rashes, swollen throats, uncontrollable nose bleeds, coughs, vomiting and skin blisters. A $5,000 fine was eventually levied against the Incinerator Authority by the Michigan Department of Health for health violations in the workplace.

TOXIC ASH=HAZARDOUS WASTE: The toxic ash, inevitable by-product of incineration, cannot be disposed of without harming the environment and threatening the health of residents. Any pollution controls added to the stack would only increase the toxicity of the ask since the toxins usually emitted from the stack would be held in the ash by the pollution control system. Independent EP-TOX tests conducted at the behest of Greenpeace and the Evergreen Alliance, as well as those subsequently conducted by the DNR, proved that the ash contained levels of lead and cadmium far exceeding the lenient standards of the EPA. The Greenpeace/Evergreen Alliance tests showed this ash to be the most toxic municipal ash ever recorded in the U.S. The exorbitant cost of disposing of this toxic ash as hazardous waste, according to the present standards for hazardous waste, would be ten times more than the City bargained for.

LANDFILLED IN SUMPTER TOWNSHIP: The toxic ash produced during "test burns" is being dumped in a regular landfill owned by City Sand in Sumpter Township. Dumping was only temporarily halted in February 1989 when tests proved the ash classified as hazardous waste. Sumpter Township residents have organized to oppose further dumping.

TOXIC ASH: CHANGING THE LAWS TO PROTECT THE GUILTY: Ash from the incinerator was found to be toxic in all tests performed at the behest of the Evergreen Alliance, Greenpeace, SEMCOSH(the Southeast Michigan Coalition on Occupational Safety and Health), the DNR and the Michigan Department of Health. Because the Incinerator Authority is unable to make the ash non-toxic at the source, the law was changed, but of course the ash, according to scientific studies, remains extremely toxic and hazardous. In the Spring of 1989, two bills, which allow the ash to be buried in a type II municipal landfill even though it classifies as hazardous waste, were railroaded through the legislature. Journalists fro the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, and even members of the legislature, said they'd never seen bills pushed through the legislative process so fast. Two other incinerators, one in Jackson and one in Clinton Township, were temporarily shut down because their ash classified hazardous. They too reopened when the laws were changed.

INCINERATION IS NOT THE ANSWER: Incineration has been touted as the answer to the landfill crisis, but up to one-third of the original volume of garbage remains as a highly toxic ash that must be dumped somewhere. The Detroit incinerator is capable of producing up to 1,000 tons of toxic ash per day. Clearly, the only way to deal with incinerator produced toxic ash is not to produce it in the first place. Ironically, it seems now that even the builders of incinerators do not believe in their own product. On May 7, 1989, the Detroit Free Press reported that Combustion Engineering was getting out of th incineration business because the technology for running these facilities safely is often unsound and in many cases not even available.

SAFER ALTERNATIVES AND INDIVIDUAL CHOICES: When confronted by citizens with the dangers of incineration, politicians and incineration apologists invariably ask, "What's *your* solution?" We've been telling them from the very beginning of this conflict but they pretend not to hear. The only same alternatives to incineration and landfills are waste reduction, composting and recycling. An aggressive municipal or statewide recycling program could reduce wastes by 85%, according to studies done by independent institutions such as the Center for Biological Systems at Queens College, New York.

Recyclable materials such as metals, paper, glass and wood are much more valuable as materials than as fuel; and recycling will save non-renewable resources and reduce pollution and energy use. Reduction of wastes at the source is more important. Some municipalities are now banning plastic packages, but the reduction must start with the production process - the production of hazardous and toxic waste must be stopped altogether.

Individuals can make a difference. People must refuse to use styrofoam, throwaway products and unnecessary packaging, thus eliminating the demand for these things in the marketplace. We can recycle paper, glass and metals, and we can compost organic materials, These are measures we can take right now on a small scale in our own homes and communities. They are not "big money" solutions in that government and industry have not yet found ways to make them profitable, but they are practices which we must adopt if we are to save ourselves and our planet. We must reject the "throwaway society." Our families are not "throwaway", nor is our health, our environment, our future.

GET THE WORD OUT: We must talk to family and friends about the real solutions to the garbage crisis. We must organize in our communities to stop the "incinerator express" engineered by Big Business and complicit politicians. We must actively demonstrate to express our unwillingness to conform to their plans to poison us, our children and the planet.

To date, 44 people have bee arrested while protesting at the gates of the Detroit incinerator. Numerous communities and individuals have linked together in opposition, not only to this incinerator, but to other attacks on our environment, and to the injustice and insanity of a corporate industrial system whose profits continue to rise at the expense of the well-being of the earth.. Please spread the word, and join us in future actions against the incinerator.

EVERGREEN ALLIANCE, PO Box 02455, Detroit, MI 48202. (313) 832-1738