Sludge Watch ==> Synagro - still wants to bring sludge pellet plant to SW Philly

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Here is the Synagro proposal to build a pelletizer, back on the table in 
Philadelphia.
The union takes a dim view of the loss of so many union positions, and that 
isn't the only problem with the proposal.  Last time it was discussed, the 
idea was to pay Synagro to make sludge pellets.
And if you need to know about the perils of Synagro pellets have a read 
through this:
http://sludge-pellets.blogspot.com/

But Synagro also wanted the City taxpayers to cover the cost of fuel to dry 
the sludge in addition to paying Synagro to take the sludge. This is a huge, 
and needless expense. There is no market for sludge pellets.  Why should 
taxpayers pay hundreds of dollars per tonne to make sludge into pellets that 
are as undesirable and unwanted as the original sludge?  *as well as a fire 
and explosion risk.

Below the current story is the story on the pelletizer proposal in 2006
........................................................................


Posted on Fri, May. 16, 2008


Waste plan not down drain
A bill in Council would allow a private sludge plant in S.W. Phila.
By Jeff Shields

Inquirer Staff Writer

Water Commissioner Bernard Brunwasser says a new, privatized sludge plant in 
Southwest Philadelphia would reduce the human waste stored on site, require 
fewer diesel trucks to haul that waste, and eliminate the putrid smell that 
can extend more than a mile in any direction from under the Platt Bridge.
What seems like an easy sell has been anything but because, in part, it 
would eliminate 60 union jobs at the city's current "biosolids" plant, a 
nice name for the not-so-nice mess that comes out of the city's wastewater.

The Nutter administration introduced legislation yesterday in City Council 
that would allow a private partnership, led by the country's largest 
biosolids contractor, to take over disposal from the city's wastewater 
treatment facilities.

The initiative, introduced by Mayor John F. Street in early 2006, had 
stalled because of opposition from District Council 33 of the American 
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 
workers at the current plant. Union officials could not be reached 
yesterday.

Mayor Nutter wants to gain approval before Council breaks for the summer 
June 19. The proposal includes language that guarantees employees at the 
existing plant will not lose their jobs.

Houston-based Synagro Technologies Inc. and two minority-owned partners 
would spend at least $65 million to build a biosolids treatment plant next 
to the old one, Brunwasser said yesterday.

Under current technology, the Water Department stores 200,000 tons of 
semi-dried waste over 72 acres at 7800 Penrose Ferry Rd. Synagro technology 
would reduce that to 60,000 tons over 30 acres and do away with the smell, 
Brunwasser said. With less volume, the number of truck trips required to 
haul the fertilizer-quality dried waste would go from 10,000 to 3,000, 
Brunwasser said.

And it would save the city $6 million annually, Brunwasser estimates.

"We're very anxious to get this going," he said.

In other business, Councilman James F. Kenney, after hearings on the issue, 
introduced legislation requiring covered pedestrian walkways at construction 
sites.

Kenney already has introduced legislation to restrict the closing of 
sidewalks and traffic lanes. His legislation yesterday increases the 
strength standards for covered walkways, so the Streets Department can 
ensure pedestrians will be protected.

Kenney said safety and convenience factors outweighed objections from the 
construction industry on costs.

"The safety of our pedestrians and the movement of traffic through our 
streets is at least as important as their complaints."

Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. called for hearings exploring "green zones" - 
areas of the city offering tax or other incentives to encourage reductions 
in greenhouse gases, use of renewable energy, water conservation, even urban 
agriculture.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20080516_Waste_plan_not_down_drain.html



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 30-April 5, 2006

City Beat
The Sludge Report
Employees slam plans to privatize biosolids plant.

by Jenna Portnoy



ENVIRONMENT


WASTE, WANT NOT: Some think working conditions at the sludge plant off I-95 
are hazardous. Richard Smith, an industrial electrician there, doesn't.
: Michael T. Regan



Every day, compost specialist Michael Keough shovels sludge at the 
processing facility that makes everyone driving into the city on I-95 roll 
up their windows and wonder just what that stench is. Although neighbors and 
environmentalists insist the biosolids he stands in are toxic, Keough says 
the job he's held for 18 years has never aggravated his asthma or caused 
other health problems.

In fact, Keough, industrial electrician Richard Smith and other employees 
are so convinced of the safety and effectiveness of the city's current 
program for getting rid of human waste, they can't understand why the city 
wants to outsource the work [News, "Smelling Faults," Jenna Portnoy, March 
16, 2006].

"I know they're uneducated about it," Keough says. "If they'd spend a day in 
my life, they'd see."

While the city boasts that outsourcing would save millions, quell 
environmental concerns and eliminate noxious odors, employees counter that 
it would cost taxpayers more money, hurt the environment and address a 
harmless odor.

Most of plant's 100 workers would also have to learn new jobs somewhere else 
within the city, but "it's not just about our jobs," says one of several 
longtime employees who did not want their names printed for fear of 
retribution. "It's about a waste of millions and millions of taxpayer 
dollars."

Water Commissioner Bernard Brunwasser wants Synagro (along with two local 
firms, McKissack & McKissack and Len Parker & Associates) to build a $66 
million indoor facility to heat-dry sludge and turn it into pellets that the 
company would then sell as fertilizer or biofuel. Once the facility is up 
and running, the city would pay the company's utility costs within limits. 
Both sides agree the pellet-producing system requires more natural gas and 
electricity than the Biosolids Recycling Center (BRC) uses now. How much 
that will cost is a matter of debate.

The difference lies in the fluctuating cost of natural gas. To figure out 
the annual cost, Water Department attorney Barry Davis uses a conservative 
number that halves the number employees use to calculate the cost. (He 
supposes that a quarter of fuel will be produced at the nearby sewage 
treatment plant.) While Davis says utilities will cost $5.2 million 
annually, employees pin the figure at $9.45 million.

After comparing current operating costs with the fee Synagro would charge, 
Davis says Synagro would save the city about $3 million the first year. Over 
the 20- to 25-year life of the contract, taking into account inflation and 
price indexes, the savings would climb to a total of $98 million, he says.

But employees don't buy it. They say, in part because of high gas costs, the 
plan will backfire and force the Water Department to raise rates to balance 
the budget.



Higher costs might be worth it if the city could at least address 
environmental concerns. But employees say it cannot.

Of the two types of biosolid the city makes, Class A and Class B, only the 
former is safe for landscaping. (Class B sludge is spread on farms and used 
in coal mine reclamation; there is controversy over whether it is 
dangerous.) The Water Department favors the Synagro plan because the pellets 
would all be Class A, which means there's less risk they could contain germs 
called pathogens.

Synagro has to get rid of these pellets—they could be sold to Florida citrus 
growers or cement plants—yet employees say the market is flooded and Synagro 
would have to landfill them.

Perhaps even worse for the environment, there have been reports of fires at 
other plants. Earlier this month, an explosion blasted a hole in a metal 
wall at a different company's sludge plant in Ocean County, N.J.

A silo at the Synagro-run plant in South Bronx exploded in September 2003. 
In a prepared statement, Synagro spokesman Jim Hecht said the Bronx plant 
was built in the early 1990s and "over the past 15 years, there has been 
marked improvement in pelletizing technologies, dramatically improving 
process control."

That's not enough to convince workers of the proposal's validity. And 
neither is the company's promise of smell-free processing.

The stench is a major reason why the city wants to go ahead with the plan. 
"We continue to subject the citizens of Philadelphia and visitors to our 
city to odors and sludge piles at the current BRC," Brunwasser wrote in a 
March 8 letter in response to Councilman Michael Nutter's inquiry about the 
plan.

He continued that the city's own watchdog, the Air Management Services (AMS) 
unit of the Department of Public Health, has not enforced odor violations 
"with the understanding that an environmentally sound alternative has been 
proposed."

Employees counter that complaints are rare, a fact backed up by AMS, and 
that the smell is nothing to worry about. "We know from being on the plant 
that the place doesn't smell good," says one worker who maintains that an 
unpleasant smell is hardly worth the financial and environmental risks.

Underlying this debate is workers' concern that they have been excluded from 
plans. In a February letter to Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, Andrew Bond, 
the AFSCME District Council 33 agent who represents most BRC employees, 
declared, "We are confident that there are viable alternatives that will 
help the Philadelphia Water Department reach its goals of cost and odor 
control."

"This just seems to me like a total waste of money," says Keough. "This 
company, first and foremost, their loyalties are to the stockholders."

Ultimately, it's up to City Council to take a critical look at the box of 
documents the Water Department sent to each member earlier this month and 
ask the right questions at a hearing tentatively set for April 25.

Employees want to spread the word before then.

Says one: "It's a very volatile thing that neighbors should know about."

http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2006-03-30/cb.shtml?print=1