Judge: Clean up Detroit plant's pollution -- or else

[MSUguy]

U.S. District Judge Sean Cox ordered Detroit officials Friday to disregard
union contracts, local ordinances and even the city charter in their efforts to
clean up pollution at the city's sewage plant on the Detroit River.

He also set a 60-day deadline to do it or
"this court will directly order a more intrusive remedy," Cox wrote in an order
in a pollution lawsuit that has been running for 34 years.

The order immediately drew sharp responses
from workers and suburban leaders.

"He seems to be suggesting that some type
of dictatorship can solve this," said John Riehl, president of AFSCME Local
207, which represents Detroit Water and Sewerage Department workers. The union
will fight the order, Riehl said

http://www.freep.com/article/2011091...text|FRONTPAGE





I found the full decesion on http://dwsdupdate.blogspot.com/. Now I support union rights, but one issue I have with unions is they too often seem to fight change for the sake fighting change. While the court found union rules hindering DWSD, it also find that employees are not paid enough. The order is well pworth reading as gives an overview issues last 30 years at DWSD and pretty much the from day one the problem has been the city's purchasing issues and not enough staff to maintain the plant

The Court finds that human resources issues have been a chronic problem for
the DWSD
for the past 34 years....... the City’s personnel policies, civil service
rules, and union
rules and agreements restrict the compensation, recruitment and prompt
hiring of necessary
personnel at the WWTP;... "This problem is compounded by the fact that, as
reported by [IMG], DWSD pays significantly below-market rates for a vast swath
of positions."

http://www.scribd.com/doc/64383011/2...ss-EPA-Lawsuit

The EPA’s May 6, 1977 Complaint alleged, among other things, that the
discharged
effluent from the DWSD’s WWTP was in violation of the federal
Clean Water Act. [[Joint Stmt.
of Stipulated Facts at ¶ 2). The Complaint
further alleged that: “the number of personnel
employed [at the WWTP] has
not been sufficient, personnel are not adequately trained, and
purchasing of
necessary and required supplies and equipment has not been timely or at
an
acceptable level . . .” [[Joint Stmt. of Stipulated Facts at ¶ 3).

[Hypestyles]

when will there be a sweeping infrastructure upgrade of the detroit water/sewage system? It is way past overdue..