SEEKING POLITICAL CONSULTANT: New Mayor Alonso Salazar of Medellin

Gator says on Jan 4, 2008, 10:41:

Are you from Nigeria?

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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wendell13 says on Jan 4, 2008, 10:57:

I am sure there a lot a lot of people with "juice" here on PBH. Ask ColMed.

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tejasmarcos says on Jan 4, 2008, 11:05:

Nope - I hail from Dallas, Texas amigo and this is no joke. I am currently working with the municipality of Quetzaltenango in Guatemala as well (via a government connection). Here are some of the fundamental questions that must be answered in order to qualify Medellin or any other municipality for a system;

PER SYSTEM VENDOR;

Our business model here is to build, own, and operate our plants. In order for us to arrange the financing on our projects we require a long term (20 year) contract with the municipally. The municipality must be creditworthy so that we can use the contract to complete our financing. If the client fails to deliver or pay for the waste processed our bankers must have proper recourse. Secondly, we must be able to enter into a long term purchase power agreement for the sale of the excess power we generate. Between the processing fee and the power sale we must generate sufficient revenue to be profitable. Typically in the States we would pursue projects that have a tipping fee between $55-$75 per ton and power sales between $100-120 per Megawatt hour.

Also, we are only considering minimum plants of 200 tonnes per day and municipal solid waste as the feedstock.

trying to walk a straight line on sour mash and cheap wine...

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tejasmarcos says on Jan 4, 2008, 11:11:

I have a 32 page professional pdf presentation on the technology in both English and Spanish to the person(s) who can demonstrate to me their willingness to get involved and connection to the mayors office.

trying to walk a straight line on sour mash and cheap wine...

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durito says on Jan 4, 2008, 12:51:

Xela is a cool little city. I lived there for 6 months in 2003

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Gator says on Jan 4, 2008, 19:52:

I seriously doubt that anyone on this board has the clout to assist you in your plan. It has been my experience in similar situations, abet sometime ago, that only someone with very
high- level political connections could help. The bottom line, Colombia being Colombia, is there is too much money (payoffs, etc., etc.,) to be made to ever let a project of this size be in private control.

If you have done this in Guatemala I am sure you know the drill. If ANYTHING went wrong the Colombian court system would eat you alive.

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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tejasmarcos says on Jan 4, 2008, 20:41:

Gator -

We are in the beginning phase in Xela (Quetzaltenango). However, my business partner there has a direct connection to the mayor.

The model actually creates a joint venture between the vendor and the municipality. Depending on the politicians, there are some payoffs that occur, that is a fact. However, payoffs are much easier to deal with than bureaucracy like in the states.

I have to have the support of the mayors office to make this happen here in Medellin and I know it is a longshot to find that connection here, but you never know.

This project would be a great way to put Medellin back on the map in terms of correcting the negative image of such a beautiful city. It would put Medellin in a very positive light and gain scientific notariety from all around the world. Scientists and journalists would come from all over to see the project as it would equate to an engineering marvel.

Medellin is also perfect because they are such a well run city from a financial perspective. EPM grosses $400 million per year for this city and the city ALWAYS runs in the black. Medellin is not really dependent on the country for federal funds and could sustain themselves independent if need be.

It is a great fit, but I need more information on tipping fees and power sale contract pricing. If those two factors do not pencil out, it will be hard to get the financing necessary for the project.

trying to walk a straight line on sour mash and cheap wine...

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rmykita says on Jan 5, 2008, 07:57:

I am interested in reading that 32 page proposal. Please consider emailing me and I will tell you privately my business here in South America, Bogota. I can quite honestly say that maybe I can help you...ryan_mykita at hotmail.com 3168575446

ry

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Gator says on Jan 5, 2008, 08:06:

Good luck and it sound worthwhile. Our private attorney in Medellin, to whom I e-mailed a copy of your post, said that information should be available in the annual budget report. She also said the idea, while good on its face, would never be viable without some strong, top level policitical support from the departmento and federal level.


In a lot of places in Colombia garbage collection is a micro-enterprise and a lot of people are involved. In Medellin, thousand of people make a living, as meager as it is, "mining" from the garbage dumps. If your plan, as worthwhile as it might be, was a htreat I would give it little chance of success-but good luck anyway.

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) says on Jan 5, 2008, 08:38:

There has to be a thicket of environmental regulations, too. I can't remember the full name of the Colombian equivalent of the EPA, it's "Ambiente ___ something" I believe.

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tejasmarcos says on Jan 5, 2008, 12:12:

Rmykita - I sent you an email. Thanks for making contact. I look forward to understanding how you could possibly assist.

Gator - Obviously you have some background knowledge above and beyond the surface level. We have also been told that the information is public regarding statistics, etc. However, I have not a clue of where to look and my spanish is not where it needs to be in order to source the documentation. Previously we had a contact at the municipality that was going to be working with us to hand deliver all of that information.

We definitely have to have the mayors support here in Medellin. The feds will come into play regarding the environmental impact study as well as coordination between the minister of energy and mines regarding the licensure and agreements in order to sell the electricity.

We were also told of the independent people who work the dump in essence gathering recyclables. There was a term that was used for them, but I failed to jot down the name in the meeting back in April 2007. There will need to be an effort to incorporate these individuals into the new system and/or subsidize their existance to some degree. This would be a social policy issue and we are prepared to negociate resolution in this area.

Tinto - Yes, there are definitely environmental regulations to consider. However, this technology is next generation technology that is closed loop with no environmental emissions. There are some high level unjustified concerns in the scientific community, but most of these issues have already been addressed in other parts of the world where this system is either a) currently being utilized or b) soon to be utilized.

The Agencia de proteccion Ambiental is the regulatory unit that would be reviewing all of the information regarding the environmental impact study that would need to be performed.

The real environmental threat is the continued use of the current landfill systems that are in place around the world. They inevitably leak toxic sludge into the water systems in and around their site(s). The last landfill that was built for Medellin was supposed to last 40 years - it lasted only 4 years and there are signs that it is beginning to leak toxins into the ground. There are also problems with buzzards. The buzzard problem is such an issue in Barranquilla that they have posed a major threat to the nearby airport and the airplanes that take off from there. One day there could be a major catastrophe that occurs because of buzzard(s) being sucked up into one of the turbine engines of a commercial airliner.

Its a daunting and convoluted project, that is for sure. However, this country has had to overcome much tougher issues. The real task will be in the organizing of the effort due to the sheer number of people that must be involved and working in unison to complete the job. The installation can be completed in 12-18 months, but the bureaucratic process can easily take a year or two before the installation process ever occurs.

Remember also that 200 tonnes a day only takes care of 1/8 of the trash problem in Medellin. It would take another few years after the first installation was in working order before additional installations could be constructed and engineered to handle the rest of the municipal solid waste. In my opinion, this could easily be a project that stretches into two political terms before final operational completion. However, at that time it would be a true marvel of engineering and science.

trying to walk a straight line on sour mash and cheap wine...

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tejasmarcos says on Jan 5, 2008, 12:32:

By the way - here is an architectural rendering of the 200 tonne per day plant. It sure looks ALOT nicer than the existing landfill.

trying to walk a straight line on sour mash and cheap wine...

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Gator says on Jan 5, 2008, 19:57:

I imagine they are called the same thing as here, Basuriegos. BTW, in as much as you live in Medalo the Universidad Nacional de Medellín will have copies of what you are looking for.

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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tejasmarcos says on Jan 8, 2008, 05:47:

PBH Community,

This is a great article from today's Wall Street Journal that exemplifies the common world problem of using traditional dumpsites and incinerator technologies to solve a cities municipal solid waste (trash) problem. Both antiquated technologies cause severe and often health hazardous problems for inhabitants.

Using a closed loop system like the one above that creates ZERO emissions is the ultimate solution for cities like Medellin, Bogota, Cali, etc.

Medellin creates 2000 metric tons per day in garbage.

Bogota in my best estimates based on their population would create close to 8000 metric tons per day in garbage - same as Naples, Italy in this article. See below;

Southern Italy's Dirty Reality
Naples Trash Pileup Helps to Illuminate
Mafia, State Roles
By GABRIEL KAHN
January 8, 2008; Page A12

Mountains of uncollected trash smoldering on the streets of Naples are illuminating an unsightly reality about southern Italy: A combination of a weak state and powerful organized crime makes some areas of the country ungovernable.

In Naples, that combination has created a toxic mix that has paralyzed the city of more than two million, created serious health risks and revealed the inability of the government to tackle even the most basic urban problems. The Camorra, as the Naples Mafia is known, maintains a tight grip on the lucrative trash business, and as the situation has worsened, the Camorra's profit and power have risen.


A large pile of trash littered a street in central Naples yesterday.
Trash hasn't been picked up on the streets since Dec. 31, when the last of dumps in the area, which had been operating beyond capacity, couldn't accept more trash. And for several weeks before that, pickups had been sporadic at best. On Sunday, army units were called in to remove trash from school buildings so that students could return after the winter break. The gravity of the situation has led to a series of desperate but still useless measures taken by authorities.

In the Pianura neighborhood, authorities recently decided to reopen a dump that had been closed 11 years earlier. That sparked violent daily clashes with local residents.

To prevent police from reopening the dump, residents have felled tree trunks onto streets, commandeered city buses and set them ablaze, and poured oil onto roads. Yesterday evening, police finally withdrew from the area.

But while residents protest, trash piles up, blocking streets and entrances to buildings. Some piles reach to the third floor of apartment buildings. The city creates an estimated 8,000 metric tons of trash daily. Many of the heaps are set on fire, releasing dioxin and other noxious fumes. Naples's trash problem has become an embarrassment for the government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi, which, like its predecessors, has been powerless to bring about change. "Everyone is looking at us, and it's sad that Italy is presenting this negative image," he said Saturday. He also said his government was working on a plan to fix the situation "once and for all" and his government has been holding a series of meetings as it tries to come up with a plan.

However, the clashes are merely the latest chapter in an environmental crisis that began more than 13 years ago when the Campania region's dumps reached capacity. Since then, the Camorra has been able to tighten its control on the trash business, burrowing its way so deeply into the system that it has defeated every attempt by the state to fix the situation.

The national government first declared an emergency in 1994, appointing a special commissioner with broad powers to fix what was already a mounting crisis by building more than a dozen trash incinerators in the area. Since then, there has been a succession of six special commissioners. One trash incinerator has been built.


A man worked his way through uncollected garbage on the streets of the Casoria district, on the outskirts of Naples, Sunday.
Franco Roberti, a prosecutor in Naples who has been investigating the trash crisis and its connections to organized crime, estimates that of the €1 billion, or about $1.5 billion, of public money spent in the Naples area on trash hauling and disposal, "the Camorra pockets about half." Working either through companies it owns directly or through intermediaries, it controls all the garbage trucks that transport the trash, as well as the dumps themselves.

The state of emergency has only benefited the Camorra, Mr. Roberti says, because it allows city governments to hand out public contracts quickly, bypassing the checks that would otherwise be necessary to ensure that hauling and collection companies aren't connected to organized crime.

The current crisis, Mr. Roberti says, is partly the result of a situation the Camorra created. For decades, it has run the highly illegal but lucrative business of hauling toxic waste from Italy's industrial north and dumping it in Campania, either in regular city dumps or simply in the open. Illegally hauling trash from the north to Campania caused the region's dumps to fill up more quickly, but also turned many municipal dumps into repositories of untreated toxic waste. Some worry that after years of this practice, toxins may be leaching into the groundwater around Naples.

Over the years local residents resisted efforts to build incinerators. However, authorities also blame the Camorra for fomenting many protests in order to block the incinerators, which could have threatened its control of the dumps and the transport system. "I have the sense that no one in Rome really understands how urgent this is or how difficult it will be to fix," says Mr. Roberti.

trying to walk a straight line on sour mash and cheap wine...

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