Wayne County to hold public meeting on plan to store hazardous, radioactive waste in landfill

Wayne County commissioners plan a public discussion Tuesday on a controversial plan to bring hazardous and radioactive waste into a Van Buren Township landfill.

The public discussion is set for 1 p.m. Tuesday at 500 Griswold St. in Detroit, inside the Guardian Building. Several officials were concerned about the plan after the Detroit Free Press reported that Wayne Disposal will take 6,000 cubic yards of soil and concrete, and 4,000 gallons of groundwater contaminated with radiation from a site in New York where the Manhattan Project developed the atomic bomb during and after World War II.

“Transferring nuclear waste poses a serious threat to residents in the area and throughout our county, and we want to make sure their voices are heard,” Wayne County Commission Chair Alisha Bell said in a statement. “We are the nation’s 19th most-populated county and we sit alongside the world’s largest freshwater supply. Surely, there are other, less-populated and less-risky places where this waste can be stored.”

Environmental officials are expected to participate in the discussion, including Elizabeth Browne from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, and Patrick Cullen from the county’s environmental services department. Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara is also expected to participate. Commissioners aim to provide sufficient information to divert the hazardous waste elsewhere, according to the Wayne County Commission.

Wayne County Executive Warren Evans previously questioned why wastes find their way to Wayne County. Arizona-based waste giant Republic Services’ Wayne Disposal and Michigan Disposal operate as among the largest hazardous waste landfills and processing facilities in the nation.

“While I understand that these materials have to go somewhere, and few if any public officials are willing to welcome toxic waste with open arms, there needs to be a solution, through new policy or legislation, that doesn’t equal Wayne County as dumping ground for what no one else wants. Because that is an assignment we simply will not accept,” Evans said in a statement.

State and local officials are hamstrung in regulating hazardous waste. A 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on imported garbage declared out-of-state trash “articles of commerce” — essentially a commodity or good — that could not be restricted under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. That case arose from St. Clair County officials attempting to restrict a local landfill from accepting out-of-state waste.

State Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, in a statement Monday said the plan to accept the waste is “alarming” and called for a larger discussion about hazardous waste management in the country.

“Wayne County is the most populous county in Michigan, and our state is surrounded by 20% of the world’s fresh water. We cannot continue to be America’s dumping ground for toxic waste. Our district and our community deserve so much better,” Camilleri said.

The meeting will also be livestreamed on the Wayne County Commission YouTube page and available through Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/2234975895.

More: How southeast Michigan became a dumping ground for America’s most dangerous chemicals

Free Press reporter Keith Matheny contributed to this story.

Dana Afana is the Detroit city hall reporter for the Free Press. Contact: dafana@freepress.com. Follow her: @DanaAfana.