Smokestack implosion at defunct Detroit trash incinerator ends decades of stink

By COREY WILLIAMS
Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — The looming smokestack of a shuttered trash incinerator whose stench sickened and angered Detroit residents for decades has come down in a rumbling controlled implosion. Reducing the smokestack to rubble Sunday is almost the final phase in the facility’s yearlong demolition, which the city says should be completed by July. The facility has stood a few miles northeast of downtown Detroit for more than 30 years. Before closing in 2021, fumes and the rank odor of burning trash could be smelled for miles, but were strongest for nearby residents, raising concerns about pollution and health impacts. Up to 5,000 tons of trash were burned there daily.