(WXYZ) — DETROIT (AP) — A company can no longer burn trash at a Detroit incinerator as part of an agreement with the state.
Detroit Renewable Power has entered into an agreement to resolve violations of air quality and waste management rules, according to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.
Trash burned at the incinerator created electricity and steam used by homes and buildings in and around downtown.
Three boilers at the facility are required to permanently shut down, and the company also must pay a $200,000 penalty for air quality violations.
The facility can continue to conduct limited, temporary solid waste transfer operations. This has been allowed to meet Detroit’s ongoing waste needs until the end of this year, the state said.
Detroit Renewable Energy Chief Executive Todd Grzech said in 2019 that the renewable power facility, northeast of downtown, would stop converting waste to energy.
The company had been under a 2014 consent judgment with the state to upgrade the incinerator to manage odors. Groups had lobbied for the plant’s closure.
Grzech told The Detroit News that the incinerator could be demolished.
“That would cover taking basically everything down to the ground,” he said. “If people (in the neighborhood) see it physically coming down, it’ll get them to believe it. That’s the key.”
