Wayne County officials were dismayed that they were not previously aware of a planned transfer of hazardous and radioactive waste into a Van Buren Township landfill .
Several officials within the Wayne County Commission at meeting Tuesday to discuss the shipments urged greater transparency in any future hauling of hazardous waste. Dozens attended the public meeting, including U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Debbie Dingell. Patrick Cullen of Wayne County's environmental services said he was concerned about the county's portrayal after the Detroit Free Press reported that Republic Services' Wayne Disposal will take radioactive waste from a site in New York where the Manhattan Project developed the atomic bomb during and after World War II.
"We happen to have one of the largest licensed processing and storage facilities here in Wayne County, in Van Buren Township" Cullen said, adding that the Army Corps of Engineers identified the landfill as one of five in the nation that's able to haul these materials.
Commissioner Joseph Palamera asked Cullen whether the Van Buren Township landfill is a top repository across the country.
"I would guess the vast majority of material would be coming to that. To be clear, they can only take materials that are licensed and approved to accept. There are materials ... that are higher level materials that cannot come."
Commissioner Al Haidous urged a more permanent solution, particularly at the federal level, to give officials and residents peace of mind.
States cannot block hazardous waste shipments
"It's not Wayne County or the local community, it’s the federal government who issued the license and didn’t put enough restrictions to eliminate the situation. We need to tackle this issue on the federal level, state level, local level too, to give people communication when something like this happens," Haidous said.
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.
Chair Alisha Bell said commissioners are proposing a resolution to the state seeking to prevent toxic waste in Wayne County and greater communication of what's coming in.
"If it's not hazardous, why don't they do it somewhere in New York? Those are the main things, that we want to send a message to our federal legislation, to our state legislation, of course, locally," Bell said, adding that officials may push for a local ordinance.
The lack of communication lies with the state, she added.
Why not ship it to 'the middle of nowhere?'
"Unfortunately, it goes from the feds to the state to local, and it kind of stopped at the state level. I'm sure they must know, but we don't know at the local level, the managers, the supervisors, the commissioners. We don't know until we read about it later on," Bell said.
Tlaib said that a company being licensed does not mean they're in compliance.
"When's the last time they (Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy) denied a permit? Because every permit I’ve seen come forward to a state seems to get approved. They get approved, but they still violate their permit," Tlaib said.
Commissioner Sam Baydoun asked Dingell why the federal government cannot find a location "in the middle of nowhere," after sharing concerns over the potential of materials entering the water and affecting the environment. Dingell deferred to the state having much of the authority over permitting.
"We should make it very, extremely expensive for these companies to dump in our backyard," Baydoun said, receiving applause from the public. "We need stronger state and federal regulations to prevent Wayne County from becoming a dumping ground. Companies need to be held accountable for their actions."
More: How southeast Michigan became a dumping ground for America's most dangerous chemicals
"Most of these things that you're talking about are at the state level," Dingell told commissioners.
Several officials were previously concerned about the plan after the 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 the New York site.
Landfill operator: We provided notice to the state
Dingell sent a letter to Republic Services on Aug. 19 with several questions. On the lack of notification to local officials and the public, the company said Wayne Disposal notified local officials and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy of "its intent to receive waste from Niagara Falls Storage Site."
"EGLE reviewed the project information and provided concurrence that the waste can be compliantly disposed of at (Wayne Disposal Inc.). WDI is open to conversations on additional future notifications," according to the response from Dingell's office.
On any ongoing environmental monitoring to prevent adverse impacts, Republic said the site is responsible for "implementing a radiological monitoring program which analyzes 40 monitoring points for radionuclides."
"Environmental media routinely sampled include groundwater, surface water, ambient air, leak detection systems, sediment and soil. All environmental monitoring data is reported to EGLE. At least annually, split samples of various media are collected and analyzed by EGLE and compared to WDI’s results to verify consistency," according to the statement.
Additionally, WDI collects and performs primary treatment on all precipitation that hits the active areas of the facility.
Free Press staff writer Keith Matheny contributed to this article.
Dana Afana is the Detroit city hall reporter for the Free Press. Contact: dafana@freepress.com. Follow her: @DanaAfana .
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Wayne County leader: 'Make it very, extremely expensive' to dump toxins 'in our backyard'
Local News
Comments / 0