On March 28, the Detroit City Council approved 5-4 a Community Host Agreement that would allow Systematic Recycling LLC to re-start composting operations at a facility on the Rouge River in the Delray neighborhood. At first glance, the addition of a composting facility sounds like a great idea. After all, composting is a form of recycling that allows us to dispose of our yard waste and return the resulting mulch back into the earth. But composting is a dirty, smelly process, and as lifelong Delray resident and Delray Community Council Chairperson John Nagy points out, "None of our yard waste will actually be processed at Systematic's facility." The company currently has contracts only with private companies that will be trucking waste in from the suburbs. One may wonder why state legislators were up in arms when it was discovered that Michigan was being used as a dumping ground for Canadian trash, but no one seems to take notice when Detroit is used as a dumping ground for suburban trash. While the city won't be processing any of its yard waste at Systematic, there should at least be the prospect of an economic gain. Not so says the Detroit Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA). According to a January 2006 review, the DEA stated, "The operation will create no new jobs in Detroit. At best, it will create 3-5 low-end jobs. Hence the positive economic impact of the operation is almost non-existent." The only additional fees the host agreement will require Systematic to pay are $10,000 twice a year for the DEA to monitor the facility. How does the monitoring process work? According to the DEA, complaints of odors, truck debris and pests resulting from the facility are to be registered with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), not the DEA. This arrangement means that by the time the complaint is handed down from the MDEQ to the DEA and investigated, there may be nothing to find. Additionally, there is no after-hours complaint number, and even if there was, Systematic only has employees working at the facility during the day, leaving no one to give investigators access to the facility at night. Composting is a seasonal operation. In the spring, summer and fall, facilities take in yard-waste and compost, leaving the winter months to do the bulk of the processing. Last year, Systematic took in 46,000 cubic yards of waste, and according to Nagy and other area residents, the stench on some days was unbearable. In addition to complaints filed by area residents and the Delray Community Council, other downriver communities have filed similar complaints, with the City of River Rouge going so far as to serve Systematic with a Request to Cease and Desist. The newly approved Community Host Agreement allows Systematic to take in 200,000 cubic yards of waste, more than 4 times as much as last year. In addition to the increase in foul odors, the facility will increase truck traffic into the area, with 200,000 cubic yards becoming the equivalent of nearly 5,000 additional truck-loads, again being concentrated in the warmer months of the year. The owners of Systematic Recycling do not have a great track record when it comes to this type of business. The company shares a business address with King of the Wind Farms, a Composting Facility that was ordered shut down after being sued by both the MDEQ and Macomb Township for multiple violations. Both businesses are owned by the Michaels family. In an area that already suffers from a declining population, high rates of drug addiction, pollution from the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant and Zug Island, and a lack of city services, the addition of a noxious fume-producing composting facility simply adds insult to injury. Long-time resident Ruby Fidel says she's "seen the good old days, and they're gone. I tell my grandkids, when they get out of school and graduate, they should pick up and go. I'm gonna be here for the duration though, and hope to see some rebirth or renaissance…but I can tell, cause we don't have nothing. They even moved out the mailboxes! When they move out the mailboxes, you know what's coming next." Delray, the diverse, multicultural neighborhood it has always been, was once a thriving neighborhood as well. One of the first integrated neighborhoods in Detroit, Delray has called itself home to Hungarians, Polish, African-Americans and Hispanics, among others. A combination of industrial abandonment, declining population, municipal neglect and the influx of Crack-cocaine has left it a shadow of its former self. With all of the opposition surrounding Systematic Recycling, I was left wondering what justification the city council could have for approving the Community Host Agreement, especially after having rejected it twice before. Statements from the council reveal little. A joint statement from Sheila Cockrel, Alberta Tinsley Talabi and Monica Conyers had this to say: "We are fully aware of the sentiment of some members of the neighborhood. We have received faxes, phone calls, requests for information and letters in opposition… At the end of the day, as elected members of this Council, we took an oath to protect the interest of the city and its residents; and the only way to accomplish that end is to approve the contract between the City of Detroit and Systematic Recycling LLC…" Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins went even further in acknowledging and then disregarding the opposition in her statement: "I am more than aware of the great deal of suffering, which the community of Delray as well as other surrounding communities have had to endure due to the constant placement of industrial and manufacturing facilities in Southwest Detroit. However, Systematic Recycling is well within its legal rights to be located at its current facility, due to local zoning ordinances." Just because local zoning ordinances allow for certain types of businesses to operate in certain areas, does not mean that cities or residents wield no veto power over them. John Nagy highlighted the current attempt by the City of Troy to block the operation of a second Hooters Restaurant in the city. The Troy City Council stated that "the restaurant doesn't fit the image the city wants to project." For now, residents have accepted the existence of the facility, but will be watching it closely for any breach of its host agreement. When the Detroit City Council voted to approve the Community Host Agreement for Systematic Recycling, they proved they were willing to further sacrifice the quality of residential life in Delray in exchange for the private profit of a suburban company with a shady past. This is not the type of investment that Detroit needs, and has allowed the term "Community Host Agreement" to become nothing more than a hollow misnomer.