Truckloads of hazardous waste continue to travel throughout the area hauling toxic chemicals and nuclear waste matter to the Wayne Disposal Inc. landfill in Van Buren Township.
Wayne County circuit Judge Kevin Cox issued a temporary restraining order on Sept. 18, halting the disposal of hazardous or nuclear waste at the local facility in response to a lawsuit filed by Van Buren and Canton townships and the cities of
Belleville and Romulus. Attorneys from Republic Services which owns Wayne Disposal petitioned the court during a hearing Sept. 24 to limit the restraining order to only waste from the Niagara Falls Storage Site allowing the continued disposal of toxic waste at the local site.
The hearing set for this week will determine whether the temporary injunction restricting the nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project will continue while the case is resolved.
The radioactive waste matter in dispute was to be hauled by truck from the Niagara Fall site where it had been stored from 1944 to 1952. The material was created during the development of atomic bombs during both World War I and II. A remediation of the New York site is planned to allow for future industrial development at the site, according to legal filings.
Currently, Wayne Disposal is receiving waste from an atomic development site in Ohio including radioactive materials from the 1940s and 1950s. That site, in Luckey, Ohio is currently under remediation by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The material, according to legal documents, exhibits an elevated level of radioactivity. According to the Army Corps, more than 175,000 tons of radioactive soil and other materials have been hauled to Wayne Disposal over the past 6 years. Material from another Ohio chemical plant where uranium was formerly developed for atomic weapons is also slated for transport and disposal Van Buren.
Data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shows that fewer than 100 people live within a 1-mile radius of only four hazardous waste facilities outside Michigan, while Wayne Disposal has 2,660 residents within that radius — and more than 150,000 residents within 20 miles of the site.
State Rep. Reggie Miller has introduced a bill that would ban elevated radiation waste from Michigan landfills. Miller said multiple states have enacted similar legislation that has withstood legal challenges.
According to the Army Corps, the waste will not exceed 50 picocuries per gram of radioactivity. One picocurie is roughly equivalent to background levels of radioactivity naturally occurring in the environment, according to a prepared statement.
Melissa Quillard, senior manager of external communications for Republic Services said the landfill has safely received and managed radioactive material for many years.
“The landfill meets or exceeds all regulations and is designed to safely manage this type of material, which can be generated through a variety of industrial and other processes,” Quillard said in a statement.
Miller, however, disagrees.
“We are not discriminating; this is a health and safety concern. That landfill is a mile and a half from the largest lake in Wayne County, Belleville Lake. It is near a middle school and a few parks. It is in the most populous county in Michigan,” Miller said.
