The radioactive waste has been stored at a 191-acre site in New York since 1944 and includes residue and waste from uranium ore processing during the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
Plans to transport the waste to Wayne Disposal Inc. site were only revealed to state and county officials Aug. 12, prompting protests and complaints from area residents and proposed state legislation to ban all radioactive material disposal in the state. Several area communities have agreed to participate in a lawsuit against the landfill parent company to prohibit the dumping of hazardous waste at the site.
“I’m willing to do what it takes to protect our community and our state,” said State Rep. Reggie Miller, D-Van Buren Township who introduced the bill last week. “The bill that I submitted will ban radioactive waste in Michigan.”
Miller introduced the bill to ban waste along with legislation to increase fees charged to trucking companies transporting the material through area communities. Plans include the trucking of 25 loads of hazardous waste from New York to Van Buren each week until January of next year.
Her proposed legislation follows a lengthy and contentious public meeting at the Ted Scott Campus of Wayne County Community College in Belleville recently. U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, Miller and several other local officials scheduled the town hall meeting for residents. Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and representatives from Wayne Disposal owner Republic Services attempted to explain the safety and legality of the waste transport to the local site but were met with strong criticism from the crowded audience who at times jeered and booed comments.
“As part of our process for these types of projects, we seek to find where there are permitted disposal facilities,” said Steve Pylypiak, chief of special projects for the Buffalo District of the Army Corps of Engineers. “Wayne Disposal being one of them.” He said other sites licensed to accept the waste were being held in reserve for material with a higher radioactivity than the waste coming to Van Buren.
He assured the crowd that federal inspections of the Van Buren site as of 2022 found that it met all mandated safety protocols, despite public claims of several fires at the site. He said the trucking contractors will be required to follow federal safety requirements for transporting the waste through local communities. He maintained that accidents involving trucks during transport of waste material were “rare.”
His assurances did not alleviate the concerns and criticism of the audience as multiple residents spoke at length of the threat and danger they believe the waste poses to the entire area, including the water table and effects on the local soil. The disposal site is near the I-94 service drive in Van Buren.
Dingell and Miller said they agreed with a proposal by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to significantly increase dumping fees at the site, a plan that has not been enacted.
The soil and concrete are only “slightly radioactive,” said Liz Browne, materials management division director for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. She said a sample of the material was analyzed and determined to be within acceptable standards for disposal in Van Buren.
Despite the comments and assurances from officials, members of the crowd continued to criticize the disposal and demand a change in the disposal plan during the meeting which continued for more than 3 hours. The meeting grew contentious and included heated exchanges between current office holders and those seeking election to various state and county offices.
According to Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara, the townships of Canton, Ypsilanti, Sumpter and Van Buren along with the cities of Belleville and Romulus have pledged to pay the cost of a lawsuit against Republic Waste, owners of Wayne Disposal, prohibiting the disposal of hazardous waste in the communities.
“I don’t want radioactive waste in my community,” McNamara stated during a recent meeting of the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees during which participation in the lawsuit against the landfill was approved.
