Sludge Watch ==> Philadelphia - Synagro Sludge Pellet Plant Wasting Away

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This story states that the proposal is to have Philadelphia  pay Synagro 
$20M to turn their sludge into pellets (why pay to make 'fertilizer'?).
But it is my understanding that Philadelphia tax payers would also shoulder 
all the escalating fuel costs to fire up the sludge dryers..the pricey
part of this proposal.  Never mind the habit of these dryer facilities to 
explode or burn...and never mind the habit of the finished pellets to go
into spontaneous combustion.

The numbers don't add up in the amount of material.  Why is 30% of the dried 
sludge 'fertilizer' and 70%  'landfilled waste'?  Same stuff...right?Right? 
Why not just put it all in lined  landfill and forget about burdening the 
poor taxpayer  (and dislocating the union workers) with an expensive fancy 
schmacy dryer to fiddle the sludge into a dubious landfilled 'product'?
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Biosolids Plan Wasting Away
By: Jim McCaffery, The Evening Bulletin
12/06/2006



Philadelphia - A Council committee hearing to continue discussing the 
privatization of Philadelphia's biosolids treatment plant in South 
Philadelphia was canceled yesterday. Now city officials are beginning to 
hear and fear the ticking clock as they attempt to close the deal by year's 
end or maybe risk losing the carefully negotiated deal.
The Street administration has negotiated an agreement to privatize the Water 
Department's Biosolids Recycling Center located next to the Platt Bridge. 
The deal has to be approved by City Council before it can go into effect.

Last week, Managing Director Pedro Ramos led a team that told City Council's 
Finance Committee that the privatization plan will result in an odor-free 
system of waste disposal that will not cost anyone currently working for the 
Water Department their jobs, and will save the city millions of dollars.
The 16-year-old biosolids recycling facility is a headache for the city. It 
costs approximately $26.2 million a year to operate. It is the source for 
constant complaints about odors that are so bad the state has refused to 
renew its clean air permit.
Thirty percent of the treated product, about 60,000 tons, is a fertilizer 
product. The other 70 percent of waste product, approximately 140,000 tons, 
is trucked to landfills.
The operation is considered labor intensive, requiring 108 employees.
In 2003, the Street administration began a process to investigate 
privatization. The result was a single qualified bidder - Philadelphia 
Biosolids Services (PBS), a group encompassing five companies that together 
promise to design, construct, equip and run a new biosolids recycling plant.
A PBS company called Synagro WWT, Inc., promises to deliver a new $66 
million plant that produces saleable fertilizer pellet with virtually no 
odor. The plant would use a process that runs biosolids through huge dryers 
that could reduce the current product of 200,000 tons a year to 60,000 tons 
a year.
This mass reduction is projected to result in a decrease of annual truck 
traffic from the plant of 7,000 trips a year. The city would be charged $20 
million a year for the biosolids processing service - a savings of $6.2 
million annually. As an added benefit, the plant size would shrink from the 
current 72 acres to between 32 and 35 acres.
Not only is the administration pushing this agreement, but Council President 
Anna Verna is behind it as well.
"I can't understand what is holding this up," Verna said yesterday, shaking 
her head as she waited for the scheduled hearing to begin.
Verna said she agrees the proposal is a good deal for Philadelphia and the 
residents in her district where the plant is located.
The sticking point is District Council 33.
The union claims the market for the biosolid pellets is already saturated in 
this area and most of the product will end up in increasingly expensive 
landfills.
It also believes the technology Synagro proposes to use is already outdated.
The union thinks, given time, it can come up with a cheaper, more effective 
process for treating biosolids.
On the bottom line, however, the union is worried about jobs.
The city has offered the union an unprecedented guarantee that the 60 union 
members in the biosolids plant would retain their jobs at the same salary 
and equal position in the Water Department.
The union scoffs at the offer, noting the Water Department has left 300 
positions open for more than a year. The net job loss of privatization to 
the union, it calculates, is approximately 90 jobs.
Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, who chairs the Finance Committee that is 
considering the bills authorizing the biosolids contracts, announced 
yesterday she would continue the hearing until next week.
Blackwell explained she had met with DC 33 officials and members of the 
administration in her office prior to yesterday's scheduled hearing. She 
agreed to put off the public discussion until next week as long as the two 
sides continued to meet and discuss their issues in good faith.
However, Blackwell says she disagrees with the administration's belief that 
the deal has to be consummated by year's end or Synagro will walk away.
"We believe we don't jeopardize the Synagro contract if we have first 
reading of the bill on the 14th (of December)," she declared. "The 
administration is worried if the contract is not done this year Synagro will 
walk. I think on the 14th, Synagro will know this is moving forward and that 
should hold them."
Ramos did sound anxious to complete the agreement when he spoke after the 
hearing continuance was announced.
"What the administration is looking for is a final decision from council on 
whether it will support a project that saves $190 million over a period of 
time," he stressed. "Privatization is a last resort. We are not eliminating 
or adding jobs. We are hoping City Council will understand what we are 
trying to do here. Nobody has ever seen such an absolute and unequivocal 
commitment to keep everybody working."
Blackwell believes it is at least worth discussing a union plan to find an 
alternative to the proposed biosolids plant.
"Anybody who supports unions has to be anti-privatization," she declared. "I 
believe those of us who work for the city have a different responsibility, 
an expanded responsibility. We have to consider the jobs of people who live 
and work in the city."


http://www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17555167&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=6