Detroit's incinerator—one of the cities most controversial buildings - leaks out excess heat steam from its underground pipes.
The system turns waste into electricity and steam.
It also turns out 25 tons of hazardous air pollutants annually plus 1800 tons of other pollutants including sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, mercury and lead.
As the result of a bad financial deal between the city's administration on the one hand and two financial holding companies (one affiliated with Philip Morris tobacco, one with Aviation Services) on the other, the city is also paying the incredible amount of $125 per ton to burn their trash, compared to $25 if it would be stored as landfill. The good news is that by 2009/10 the bonds will have been paid off, so the costs for the city to use the incinerator would drop drastically.
Today there will be a protest at the incinerator to close it.
Will that happen, nobody knows.
Until then, we're onto the steam, we already let up a balloon, cooked one egg -sunny side up, and boiled another one. They tasted just fine. In the near future we'll test roasted potatoes. And we might set up a dry-cleaners'.
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