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Topic: The never ending Rizzo Trash deal
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BillPayer
F L I N T O I D

Well hold off on that. I found out I made a mistake in an earlier post. The one that said averill recycling didn't have a open lic was for a different address. It was 1020 averill not 220. Not sure why, will look at that again when I get to a computer.

Those situations are for the right address though, and do imply they didn't have a lic even at the time of the fire though... Which is actually worse!

But yeah i mean this looks kind they shouldn't be accepting anything... Which according to that Sept 29 2016 article.. They do
Post Fri Oct 28, 2016 6:01 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Flint recyclers step up efforts to combat water bottles
Kyla Smith, The Detroit News 1:52 p.m. EST January 28, 2016
012816-tm-Water Bottles013Buy Photo
(Photo: Todd McInturf / The Detroit News)
Flint — To prevent the pileup of empty bottles in landfills from the fallout of the city’s drinking water crisis, officials announced Thursday that residents will immediately have biweekly curbside pickup service.

With thousands of water bottle donations coming in by the hour to assist residents dealing with unusable tap water from corroded lead pipes, recycling companies have stepped up to keep Flint from becoming blighted by plastic.

As of Wednesday, emergency efforts have led to the distribution of 207,055 cases of water, according to the state.

Matt Flechter, recycling market development specialist with the state, said he hopes Flint will become a model city for recycling for doing its part to tackle the used containers.

“We want to make this process easy for people to get it done,” he said. “Recycling will be a normal order of business in Flint.”

The biweekly curbside pickup is underway for residents with weekly trash collection. Residents without trash pickup can call Republic Services, (800) 438-0966, for a recycling bin or they can use their own box as long as it’s labeled recycling.

“Everyone needs water,” said Misha Black, 24. “I didn’t even know about the recycling bins until my cousin told me today. I guess I will call the number.”

Residents also can request free recycling bins from Republic Services. For additional bottles that won’t fit in bins, the company will provide clear plastic bags.

While Shane Kelley, planner for the Genesee County Metropolitan Planning Commission, wants to remind residents not to forget to recycle old water filters, they are only accepting PUR and Brita brands.

“With the help of volunteers, we are helping to create great solutions,” Kelley said. “We are working to provide safe, new filters to all residents.”

The state has provided residents with 97,342 water filters, which require frequent changing.

Other companies helping with recycling are Young’s Environmental Cleanup, Schupan Recycling and TerraCycle.

To maximize efforts, bins have been placed in central areas of the city, including downtown, grocery stores, most schools and fire stations.

“While we are all working together as a community, it’s still important for us to take pride in our environment and not harm it,” Lt. Gov. Brian Calley said Thursday at an event announcing the efforts. “Our goal is to make sure none of these bottles end up as litter.”

Recycling centers have been overwhelmed by the amount of waste as a result of the need to use plastic bottles.

Over the course of several months, the workload of employees at Averill Refuse and Recycling in Flint has doubled, if not tripled, workers say.

“We have easily sorted through 40,000 pounds of water bottles in a week,” said Rochelle Wiswell, general manager at Averill. “There will be lots of overtime for a long time.”

Averill has provided the majority of Flint schools and retirement homes with free recycling containers.

“We collect a 40-yard container each day. You can do the math. That’s a lot of bottles,” Wiswell said.

Flint has five water resource distribution sites where residents can pick up bottled water, one of which is at Fire Station No. 1 at 310 E. Fifth. Flint Chief David Cox Jr. said people come as early as 8 a.m. every day looking to pick up cases of water.

“We easily see 400-500 people a day, giving out two to three cases of water per car,” Cox said. “I see people with their own U-Hauls passing out water, too, so I know this recycling effort is much needed to make sure we keep our city clean.”
Post Fri Oct 28, 2016 6:40 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Averill is obviously still open. But I only find references to recycling.
(I saw that other address also, but I think it might have been in Howell.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Recycling centers have been overwhelmed by the amount of waste as a result of the need to use plastic bottles.

Over the course of several months, the workload of employees at Averill Refuse and Recycling in Flint has doubled, if not tripled, workers say.

“We have easily sorted through 40,000 pounds of water bottles in a week,” said Rochelle Wiswell, general manager at Averill. “There will be lots of overtime for a long time.”

Averill has provided the majority of Flint schools and retirement homes with free recycling containers.

“We collect a 40-yard container each day. You can do the math. That’s a lot of bottles,” Wiswell said."
Post Fri Oct 28, 2016 6:44 pm 
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BillPayer
F L I N T O I D

So there are some unknowns here. It does seem evident that Averill Recycling is open and probably doing business from their 220 averill location. But the question becomes what are they doing there? And how much are they doing?

The 2001 GCSWMP calls out Averill Recycling as being a "Transfer and Recycling Processing center". page D-45 shows the location as 220 Averill.

Transfer stations only need a license if they are transferring over 200cu yards a day or receive solid waste from a compactor equipped unit. Processing centers always need to be permitted and licensed.

The unknowns:

What is our states technical difference between transfer and processing. I believe in another state there was a 10% threshold. If all but 10% was the same then you were merely transferring it. If over 10% needed to be separated then you're processing.

Does Averill current accept more than 10% a day of unsorted recycling (not just bottles)

Do they have the authority to change themselves from a processing site to merely a transfer site?

They have not been in compliance since around the fire. How can this be? Shouldn't they be getting fined? Warning letters, etc? What's the difference between a cac and a cei? .. Was a cac plan formed?

http://www.deq.state.mi.us/wdspi/Cme/Evaluations.aspx?w=437195

http://www.deq.state.mi.us/wdspi/Cme/Violations.aspx?w=437195&ctl00_Body_ViolL=0*_*0*2
Note: no return to compliance after 2015 violations.. They are also still open violations.

http://www.deq.state.mi.us/wdspi/Cme/Violations.aspx?w=437195&ctl00_Body_ViolL=0*_*0*2
Note: tsp means transfer/processing station..

Also, the physical appearance averill recycling.. There appear to be mounds of unbaled and uncontained plastics all over. This could indicate moving it multiple times which could mean its a processing site still.

I would like to add there have been improvements to the surrounding area. Even a year ago all the trees looked like scary grocery bag monsters. But today I didn't see a single bag. I'm not sure if that was an effort in their part or not, but as long as you don't look through/at their fence its not an eye sore

Anyway, that's where I'm at now.
Post Fri Oct 28, 2016 10:41 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Recycling is a priority of Gov. Snyders. If the price is high for the plastics, maybe Averill can overcome their bankruptcy, Most government agencies will give some leeway if a business makes strides in the right direction. The number of bags of bottles at the fire stations was unreal. This should have been an easy sort if all of the bags were bottles.

If you look at the reports, some landfills have about a 14 year capacity left and others hundred of years. We import from Canada and a little from other states, but what I read says it is a trade off as they take our toxic materials.

City hall and the current jail were both built on old landfills. I believe they just recently were able to stop testing the wells.
Post Sat Oct 29, 2016 4:08 am 
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BillPayer
F L I N T O I D

http://www.recyclingplasticwaste.com/cgi-bin/rexview.cgi?rex=000083&wsc=13-0501

WANTED : LW1172904
Shipping Pt. / Location: USA, MIDLAND MICHIGAN

Contact Listing
Quantity Units Frequency
42000 lbs Ongoing
Price Funds Per Unit
0.25 USD lbsColored PET Flake - PET 35% GF. Colored PET Regrind shall consist of reground colored (go black) PET containing 35% GF. NO contaminates, FR, or minerals. Could take baled scrap


http://www.recycle.net/Plastic/PET/xv100100.htm

So after a quick search.. PET plastic arms to be going for around $0.30 a pound. At their 40,000# a week they said they collect that's $12,000/week. Im sure there is a fair amount of overhead, but they could be easily pocketing $6,000 a week after paying labor an gas for collection and etc.
Post Sat Oct 29, 2016 7:18 am 
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BillPayer
F L I N T O I D

Math check:

40,000 lbs of bottles every week? That's a lot more than 40 yards a day.

40000/5=8000#/day (closed for weekend)

8000/40=200# per cubic yard. (they* collect 40 yards a day; probably not the only source)

They say that they have been overwhelmed with the amount of bottles because of the water crisis, but these bottles are highly unlikely to be compressed. Clearly a cubic yard of uncompressed bottles weighs no where near 200 pounds.

A cubic yard would be less than 10 of those large plastic bags? They are only a few pounds a each.

This indicates they don't handle 40,000# /week, they somehow receive compressed bottles, or they may recieve over 200 yards a day.
Post Sat Oct 29, 2016 7:44 am 
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BillPayer
F L I N T O I D

324.11506 Definitions; S to Y.
Sec. 11506
(3) "Solid waste processing plant" means a tract of land, building, unit, or appurtenance of a building or unit or a combination of land, buildings, and units that is used or intended for use for the processing of solid
waste or the separation of material for salvage or disposal
, or both, but does not include a plant engaged primarily in the acquisition, processing, and shipment of ferrous or nonferrous metal scrap, or a plant engaged primarily in the acquisition, processing, and shipment of slag or slag products.
...
(5) "Solid waste transfer facility" means a tract of land, a building and any appurtenances, or a container, or any combination of land, buildings, or containers that is used or [b]intended for use in the rehandling or storage of solid waste incidental to the transportation of the solid waste, but is not located at the site of generation or the site of disposal of the solid waste.

----

So my take on this is if they sort different recyclable types then this is not incidental to the transportation. As per previous photos (in the tri County article) they did active sorting in 2012. Also, they are not in compliance due to a violation for having an unauthorized open solid waste dump site on site. Either of these could mean they should be treated as a processing site.

A follow up on the math: I was able to find a reference saying 1 cubic yard of uncomplicated bottles weigh 36 pounds. Since we know they said they handle 40,000 pounds a week and they are open 5 days a week.. For them to be AT maximum capacity for a transfer site the incoming bottles would have to weigh at least 40 lbs (~10% more than the reference I found.)

Anyway, it certainly looks like they are operating shadily at best. But proof of that would require actual investigation so this probably wouldn't go anywhere... Unless they aren't suppose to be open at all
Post Sat Oct 29, 2016 1:46 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Bill Payer- It appears that you are looking at environmental issues that affect the East Side. I was researching a story involving Flint General Hospital and found an air monitoring station at that site. I was aware of an EPA site behind Williams school at Whaley Park, but the number of EPA green barrels shocked me. I remember a "toxic Tour" conducted by the EPA and the Sugar law Firm during the NAACP environmental discrimination lawsuit against the Genesee Power Plant in the 1990's. Playing with the map I wanted to see the EPA power plant profile,only to be told I was not authorized.

The winds from the west and northwest carry a large number of airborne pollutants into that area. Former councilwoman and City Administrator Peggy Cook and her husband lived for many years near Rollingwood. Both had lung cancer before they passed. They went to a Detroit cancer facility where they were informed of a "cancer cluster' in Flint. Now Karmanos has moved here.

I just finished a huge research project,but I am planning to work on the environmental story as soon as I feel rested.
Post Tue Nov 01, 2016 5:24 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Steve Myers runs this site. Whenever I copy a address link it distorts the page.
Look up Flint General Hospital at Flint, USA.com

www.usa.com/frs/flint-general-hospital.html

Then you can review Flint and county stats and environmental concerns. The map is interactive and you can view the entire area.

By the way, while the Sugar law Firm and karry Moss did not stop the power plant, they did impact the siting of a proposed Steel Mill based on the impact of the air emissions.
Post Tue Nov 01, 2016 5:31 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Stephen P. Dresch: The Offensive, Odorous Underbelly of Trash ...
www.forensic-intelligence.org/waste/cttrash.htm
Jul 27, 1993 - ... of mob activity and political chicanery in the Michigan trash business. ... where in 1991 the city's former trash hauler, Oakland Disposal, Inc., ...Solid & Toxic Waste Files; Forensic Intelligence Hub-Page; Stephen P. Dresch, Chairman



Cheboygan Daily Tribune, July 27, 1993

The Offensive, Odorous Underbelly of Trash

by
Stephen P. Dresch
Newspapers statewide have been filled for several months with reports of mob activity and political chicanery in the Michigan trash business. Particularly riveting stories have come from Warren, where in 1991 the city's former trash hauler, Oakland Disposal, Inc., after its equipment was vandalized and its transfer station was firebombed, was replaced through a no-bid $16 million city contract with Warren Waste Transfer, a company established only a few weeks earlier, supposedly by Quirino D'Alessandro, a crony of Mayor Ronald Bonkowski.

In fact, D'Alessandro, who has been indicted on federal fraud charges as part of a continuing investigation of illegal gambling and money laundering and whose $1.5 million house has been seized by the Secret Service, was fronting for trash baron Anthony Soave, who, it turns out, owns Warren Waste Transfer. The confessed Oakland Disposal arsonist, small-time hood John Pree, now testifies that he and his accomplice, Carlo Bommarito, got the order to vandalize Oakland Disposal's equipment and firebomb its transfer station from Detroit mob boss Vito Giacalone. Pree, Bommarito and Bommarito's father, Francesco, a longtime Giacalone associate, have been charged with arson and conspiracy.*

Although Soave has had previous links to Detroit mob figures (including an early 1970s partnership with Frank Mudaro, described in 1963 U.S. Senate hearings as a section leader in the Detroit Mafia; earlier, Mudaro had been a business partner of William "Black Bill" Tocco, one of the five ruling dons of the Detroit Mafia), Soave's underlings dismiss Pree's sworn testimony as ludicrous. However, Soave clearly has profited from the demise of Oakland Disposal. In addition to his Warren contracts, Soave has acquired other trash-related businesses from Oakland Disposal's former owners, brothers John and Robert Runco, and City Management is currently trying to get permits to reopen Oakland Disposal's former landfill in Waterford Township.

But, we need not go to the Detroit metropolitan area to observe the questionable dealings of Anthony Soave. In late 1991 Soave's City Management Corp. acquired for $3.8 million a landfill jointly owned by Crawford and Otsego Counties, although another bidder had offered about 50 percent more (and a 50 percent larger environmental clean-up fund). The deal was worked out by the landfill authority's lawyer, James Cotant, who, interestingly, had been a high-school classmate of Soave's director of landfill operations, Paul Sgriccia. Not coincidentally, Soave simultaneously paid $800,000 for the local trash-hauling business of Robert McLachlan, then-chairman of the Crawford County Board of Commissioners responsible for negotiating the landfill sale on behalf of the counties; McLachlan and his son were also given long-term employment contracts by City Management.

Prior to its acquisition by Soave, the Crawford-Otsego landfill had accumulated about $1 million in fines levied by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for violation of environmental laws. Shortly after Soave's purchase, representatives of City Management, the DNR and the Attorney Generalmet in the Lansing office of Senator John Pridnia (R-Hubbard Lake) and, under the watchful eye of Pridnia aide Mark Knudsen, negotiated the waiver of all but $200,000 of these fines (with the understanding that this $200,000 would not be paid to the state but would instead be spent on recycling in Crawford and Otsego counties; much of the expenditure to date has been for capital equipment). To meet in a legislator's office and to include a legislative staff member in the negotiations was unprecedented, but a DNR officer's objections were overruled. Perhaps not surprisingly, Pridnia has been the beneficiary of the financial largess of Soave's political action committee, City PAC.

After heading Michigan's unsuccessful search for a site for a low-level radioactive waste dump to serve a compact of midwest states, in 1991 James Cleary returned to the DNR as deputy director, in charge of solid waste regulation. When Crawford County Commissioner Joe Callewaert objected to the behind-the-scenes circumstances under which Soave's City Management had acquired the Crawford-Otsego landfill, Cleary asked for Callewaert's documentation, received it, and promised "a complete and thorough investigation." Less than five months later Cleary had accepted the Pridnia-negotiated waiver of fines on the landfill, taken early retirement from the DNR and joined Soave as a City Management officer (a position for which Pridnia claims to have recommended him). Perhaps not surprisingly, nothing was heard of Cleary's promised investigation.

Supposedly, there was to be no conflict between Cleary's new position with City Management and his previous role as deputy director of Michigan's DNR because Cleary would be working for City Management's Florida subsidiary, Universal Waste and Transit. However, answering an early 1993 call to Universal Waste's Tampa headquarters, the receptionist initially didn't even know who Cleary was and ultimately advised the caller to contact Cleary at City Management's Detroit headquarters. About the same time, a Lansing lobbyist for the solid waste industry observed that Cleary was regularly in Michigan and was "invaluable to the industry because of his influence" over his former DNR colleagues.

Soave's political affairs are handled by the ex-mayor of Flint, James Sharp, hired by Soave on the advice of the former speaker of the state House of Representatives, Gary Owen (D-Ypsilanti), who recommended Sharp as "a minority that could work in local government in the Detroit area." Reflecting the northern expansion of City Management's interests, Soave recently retained the lobbying services of former state Senator Mitch Irwin (D-Sault Ste. Marie). After the Alpena County Commission rejected a reciprocal solid-waste agreement proposed Crawford County which would have been of obvious benefit to City Management, Irwin called individual Alpena commissioners to chastise them for not granting carte blanche approval of City Management's participation in Alpena County's legally-required 20-year solid waste plan.

Probing the malodorous underbelly of trash, criminal and political, one does, certainly, discover interesting bedfellows.
Post Tue Nov 01, 2016 4:26 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

"Soave's political affairs are handled by the ex-mayor of Flint, James Sharp, hired by Soave on the advice of the former speaker of the state House of Representatives, Gary Owen (D-Ypsilanti), who recommended Sharp as "a minority that could work in local government in the Detroit area." Reflecting the northern expansion of City Management's interests, Soave recently retained the lobbying services of former state Senator Mitch Irwin (D-Sault Ste. Marie). After the Alpena County Commission rejected a reciprocal solid-waste agreement proposed Crawford County which would have been of obvious benefit to City Management, Irwin called individual Alpena commissioners to chastise them for not granting carte blanche approval of City Management's participation in Alpena County's legally-required 20-year solid waste plan"



This is the relationship that had council, especially Scott Kincaid, reluctant to embrace any company associated with former Mayor Stanley. Sharp worked to give Soave's trash company, City Management, contracts with the City of Flint and other Genesee County companies.
Post Tue Nov 01, 2016 4:34 pm 
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BillPayer
F L I N T O I D

That EPA site is pretty neat. It's interesting that it shows former meth labs on it. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any information on Averill Recycling there, so it was a bust for me as far as that goes. But did you happen to check out the google ariel views of averill recycling?



I believe the view is from the summer of 2015*. If you look at the back portion you can see where the fire was.. you can see a large black mark where a trash heap was. From these images its clear why they were given citations for having an open dump.

There's no way this place should have been classified as a transfer station and not a processing plant. If it's operating anything like that today they need to be shut down. That's a disgrace to our city. I do also see the close proximity to the creek people were talking about. I wonder what EPA implications could come from having that place next to the creek.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0225319,-83.6462159,141m/data=!3m1!1e3

BTW: You're right, this site does do some weird things to links. I tried doing a few different tricks and I still couldn't get it to work properly. Please copy and paste the full address I posted to see the actual map if you're interested.

* I say summer 2015 by judging off the amount of the plant that was torn down between averill and center north of robert t lognway, the green grass and trees, and the lack the fact the parking lot wasn't full from the flint auto cars yet.

As point of reference this is what it looked like some number of years back: https://binged.it/2e1002H -- it really had made a turn for the worst.
Post Wed Nov 02, 2016 1:42 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Tanks & Spills Information For
Ken Macgillivray
1200 S Averill Ave, Flint, MI 48503
Tanks & Spills Details for Ken Macgillivray
ID # 1
Type: UST
Status: Removed from Ground
Installation Date: 5/2/1973
Substance: Gasoline
Capacity: 10000
Capacity: 8/27/1991
ID # 2
Type: UST
Status: Removed from Ground
Installation Date: 1/1/1972
Substance: Used Oil
Capacity: 1000
Capacity: 10/28/1998
ID # 3
Type: UST
Status: Removed from Ground
Installation Date: 1/1/1972
Substance: TRANSMISSION
Capacity: 1000
Capacity: 10/28/1998
ID # 4
Type: UST
Status: Removed from Ground
Installation Date: 1/1/1985
Substance: Used Oil
Capacity: 500
Capacity: 10/28/1998
ID # 5
Type: UST
Status: Removed from Ground
Substance: Used Oil
Capacity: 1000
Capacity: 10/28/1998
ID # 6
Type: UST
Status: Removed from Ground
Substance: Used Oil
Capacity: 500
Capacity: 10/29/1998
ID #
Leak #: C-1775-91
Type: LUST
Status: Closed
Release Date: 8/27/1991
Substance: Unknown
Removed / Closed Date: 6/15/1994
ID #
Leak #: C-0232-04
Type: LUST
Status: Closed
Release Date: 10/28/1998
Substance: Waste Oil
Removed / Closed Date: 9/22/2010
ID #
Leak #: C-1122-98
Type: LUST
Status: Closed
Release Date: 11/10/1998
Substance: Unknown
Removed / Closed Date: 10/7/1999
ID #
Leak #: C-0031-99
Type: LUST
Status: Closed
Release Date: 1/11/1999
Substance: Unknown
Removed / Closed Date: 10/7/1999

Tank related leaks and spills are caused by mismanaged or poorly designed underground and aboveground storage tanks and containers designed to hold a variety of potential polluters. They may pose a risk to human health and/or the environment.
Tank Types AST - Above Ground Storage Tank
UST - Underground Storage Tank
LAST - Leaking Aboveground Storage Tank
LUST - Leaking Underground Storage Tank
Categories SITE - Potentially Hazardous Site
SPILL- Potentially Hazardous Spill
Related pages

Brownfields Report for 48503
Brownfields Report for Flint, MI
Brownfields Report for Genesee County, MI
Polluters Report for 48503
Polluters Report for Flint, MI
Polluters Report for Genesee County, MI
Superfunds Report for 48503
Superfunds Report for Flint, MI
Superfunds Report for Genesee County, MI


-
Post Wed Nov 02, 2016 4:41 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

WWW.homefacts.com

Gives information on risk factors in any given location

However the aerial photos seem to be out of date as Mary Ann Macgillvry car lot is still there with the car lots full. When Averill Recycling started, the smell was so bad there were numerous news stories about the impact on the dealership and the neighborhood. The dealership folded at this site as 1200 S. Averill is locate in front of this site. There is a large park east of this area and a very active community group that uses and keeps it clean.

I don't remember when the car dealership left and accessing Journal records is sometimes difficult even the paid archives. However since tanks were being remove in the 90's, they have been gone since then.

I don't know the area well enough to recognize everything but I can recognize lots of trash on the site even then.
Post Wed Nov 02, 2016 5:25 am 
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