Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced Tuesday that an abandoned incinerator will be demolished.
The city will have the demolition at the 5700 Russell Street location start within the next few weeks, and it’s expected to be completed by the end of the year.
DTE is scheduled to cut the establishment’s power during Memorial Day weekend. Officials say the demolition should take about six months.
The Detroit incinerator was burning 5,000 tons of trash per day for 30 years.
According to a news release, the demolition will help generate about $1.3 million in revenue for the Greater Detroit Resource Authority (GDRRA) from the salvageable metals and other materials within the incinerator.
“The presence of this incinerator has been a real pain point for this community because it was another example of a health hazard being placed in a lower-income community of color,” Duggan said. “We worked hard behind the scenes to get the incinerator shut down, and now residents of this neighborhood will finally be able to say goodbye to it forever.”
Below is the plan for the Detroit incinerator site.
In 2019, Detroit thermal agreed to stop incinerator operations after pressure from the Duggan administration to make major upgrades to the facility and other additional costs.
State environmental records show that during the last five years of the incinerator’s operation pollution, emissions exceeded 750 times more than the normal standard.
Related: Detroit incinerator that sparked odor complaints to close indefinitely
“Although the incinerator has not operated over the last three years, the symbol of what has caused so much pain and suffering in the community has remained and I’m sure it has continued to traumatize those impacted the most. Today’s announcement and subsequent demolition of the incinerator means further relief and hopefully a source of healing for impacted residents,” said City Council President Mary Sheffield.
You can watch Priya Mann’s full coverage of this story in the video below.