Government suspends radioactive soil shipments to Michigan landfill

The federal government has stopped sending hazardous waste to a Michigan landfill from Ohio, a ripple effect after a judge intervened in a different matter and suspended plans for waste shipments from New York state, officials said Friday.

Since 2018, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been trucking material from Luckey, Ohio, where beryllium, a toxic metal, was produced for weapons and other industrial uses after World War II.

Wayne Disposal Inc., in Van Buren County, 25 miles west of Detroit, is one of the few landfills in the United States that can handle certain hazardous waste.

In a statement to The Blade Friday, an Army Corps spokesman said it’s too soon to tell how the decision will affect the cleanup of the Luckey site.

“In accordance with the Wayne County Circuit Court’s order to the Wayne Disposal Inc. facility, we are not currently sending material from Luckey. We are currently evaluating how the decision will impact progress there,” Avery Schneider said.

“Our focus remains on safely and efficiently cleaning up the Luckey Site to protect the health and well-being of the community and the environment,” he said.

More than 275,000 tons of soil containing beryllium and low-level radioactivity have been shipped to Wayne Disposal Inc. in Belleville, Mich., since the Luckey cleanup began in 2018.

Mr. Schneider said operations were paused after a Detroit-area judge temporarily stopped plans to send low-level radioactive waste from Lewiston, N.Y., to Wayne Disposal. Four nearby communities said they’re concerned about the risks of what would be placed there. A court hearing is set for Sept. 26.

The Army Corps also manages the Lewiston site. In reaction, it decided to halt waste shipments from Ohio “while we assess the judge’s order,” Mr. Schneider said.

Canton Township Supervisor Anne Marie Graham-Hudak said she was unaware that Wayne Disposal was accepting waste from Ohio.

“That’s good,” she said of the pause.

Republic Services, which operates the Michigan landfill, said it “meets or exceeds” rules to safely manage hazardous materials.

Nothing has been trucked yet to Michigan from New York. Tainted soil in Lewiston is a legacy of the Manhattan Project, the secret government project to develop atomic bombs during World War II.

Information from The Blade’s news services contributed to this report.